Rohingyas brace for worst after Supreme Court refuses to believe ordeal of forced deportation

On May 09, 5:36 am, Sadeq Shalom woke up with a call from an unknown number. At the other end was his brother Anwar, who was called in by local police for biometrics along with his wife, Gulbar, on May 06 and never returned home.

“They threw us in the sea, and they gave each of us a life jacket, with which we swam and reached the seashore,” Anwar told his brother from a local fisherman’s phone. He was among the 40 Rohingya refugees from New Delhi who were forced into the sea near the Myanmar border by Indian authorities.

The transcript of the call was part of an urgent petition filed in the Supreme Court of India. It mentioned torture, details of the journey and the final destination, Myanmar.

Despite media coverage and a UN expert statement, the top court declined to pass any interim orders to halt deportations, saying the petition lacked material evidence. Maktoob used documents from the group holding 40 people in Myanmar to confirm the story.

The Court, in its oral observation, said that there existed “a serious dispute” on whether Rohingyas were refugees or not. The bench tagged the present petition with other pending cases on Rohingya deportation and posted it for hearing on July 31.

While the court refused to believe him, Sadeq got two more calls from Myanmar from his brother and relative, reassuring him they were safe and had food, something Maktoob has conveyed to families of Rohingyas after receiving communication from the civilian-led National Unity Government.

Sadeq now waits for his turn, along with his mother and sisters, to “surrender” and return to the land where crimes against humanity continue against Rohingyas, who stayed and survived the genocide in 2017.

Thomas Andrews, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, has begun an inquiry into the deportation, calling them “unconscionable, unacceptable acts” while urging the Indian government to refrain from inhumane and life-threatening treatment of Rohingya refugees, including their repatriation into perilous conditions in Myanmar.

“I am deeply concerned by what appears to be a blatant disregard for the lives and safety of those who require international protection. Such cruel actions would be an affront to human decency and represent a serious violation of the principle of non-refoulment, a fundamental tenet of international law that prohibits states from returning individuals to a territory where they face threats to their lives or freedom,” Andrews said.

Democratic Voice of Burma has reported that a group calling itself the Ba Htoo Army, affiliated with the National Unity Government, detained them after a “boat they were travelling in landed on a beach in Launglon Township”.

The details were also confirmed by Aung Kyaw Moe, Deputy Human Rights Minister of the Myanmar National Unity Government, in a message to Maktoob.

Since then, at least eight more Rohingyas have been rounded up and kept in detention by Delhi Police, Maktoob can confirm with photo evidence. Another report indicates 10 Rohingyas are being detained in Uttar Pradesh.

“Persecuted everywhere”

Anwar and Sadeq were 14 and 11 when they fled from Buthidaung in 2014. In the last weeks in their hometown, all the Rohingyas would sleep in the safest house in the village with guards to protect them from ethnic violence.

Their father was already in Delhi with a Long Term Visa (LTV). When the stateless Rohingya refugees arrived in India in 2010, they were granted Long-Term Visas (LTVs), effectively recognising them as refugees. This practice continued until 2017.

So the week-long perilous journey ended on something better. In the last decade, Sadeq and Anwar called New Delhi their home. They studied and lived among Indians.

In 2017, as a brutal military crackdown in Rakhine forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee, the Minister of State for Home Affairs (MHA) in India issued a directive to state governments asking them to identify all “illegal immigrants” within their respective borders for deportation.

“Infiltration from Rakhine State of Myanmar into Indian Territory especially in the recent years besides being a burden on the limited resources of the country also aggravates the security challenges posed to the country,” read the directive.

Despite this, MHA estimates about 40,000 Rohingyas now live in India, with approximately 18,000 registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They live in many settlements on the outskirts of north Indian cities, doing menial work with no access to state welfare schemes.

In recent years, police have detained Rohingyas with a bid to deport them. But Rohingyas, called the most persecuted community in the world, are stateless people with nowhere to go.

According to an Indian Express report, MHA, earlier this month, set a 30-day deadline for states and Union Territories to verify the credentials of persons suspected to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar who claim to be Indian citizens.

After the 30-day period, if their documents are not verified, they will face deportation, the report claims.

Nearly 700 Rohingya refugees are now facing indefinite detention in India. In 2018, the Supreme Court of India rejected a plea urging authorities to stop deporting Rohingyas. And again in 2021, the apex court judgment paved the way for more deportations.

The latest observation by the court was on May 08, in a petition asking for a stay in the deportation of 40 people. It said even UNHCR cardholders will be deported.

Sadeq is certain that the days are counting for the police to reach him and his family. A decade in India was not pleasant, but better than the genocide in his homeland. He doesn’t know what’s next.

Several Rohingyas in Delhi, whom Maktoob spoke to, have said they are ready to leave if the government provide a ‘safe’ way. People are preparing for the worst if they are pushed back to the sea or the border with Myanmar.

Returning to Myanmar will be a death sentence to them, activists have warned. The overcrowded camp in Bangladesh will be a prison with no promise of normalcy.

“The Rohingyas are refugees who have fled genocide and persecution. That’s not up for debate. For decades, the Myanmar military has waged a systematic genocidal campaign of violence against the Rohingya that culminated in their mass forced displacement. Today, they face threats also from the Arakan Army in Northern Rakhine State. It is not safe for them to return to Myanmar,” said Yap Lay Sheng from Fortify Rights.

“Although India is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, is still bound by the principle of non-refoulement under customary international law to protect Rohingya refugees,” he told Maktoob.

“Persecuted everywhere,” reads Sadeq’s WhatsApp status updated on May 11.