Jabeda Khatun was devastated when she found out her daughter and granddaughter were in Myanmar, the country they fled eight years ago due to a genocide. Photo: Shaheen Abdulla/Maktoob
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on Thursday raised alarm over India’s ongoing expulsion of Rohingya refugees and Bengali-speaking Muslims, calling the deportations a violation of international law and religious freedom.
The commission said Indian authorities in May deported at least 40 Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, forcing them to make a dangerous boat journey. Since then, officials have expelled hundreds of Bengali-speaking Muslims to Bangladesh without due process, according to rights groups.
Thomas Andrews, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, has begun an inquiry into the deportation of 40 Rohingya refugees, calling it “unconscionable, unacceptable acts”.
According to Human Rights Watch, at least 192 Rohingya refugees were expelled from India despite being registered with the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). The group had earlier stated that although the Indian government has provided no official data on the number of people expelled. Still, Border Guard Bangladesh has reported that India expelled more than 1,500 Muslim men, women, and children to Bangladesh between May 7 and June 15, including about 100 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.
“The Indian government’s expulsion of Rohingya refugees is a blatant disregard for international law and the principle of non-refoulement,” USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler said in a statement Friday. “The Indian authorities must immediately end this unlawful expulsion and arbitrary detention of refugees, who are at risk of severe persecution if forced to return to Burma.”
India has hosted thousands of Rohingya refugees since 2017, but does not recognise them as refugees under its Foreigners Act. Authorities have also described many Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam as “illegal immigrants” from Bangladesh, part of a wider implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
“Forcing Muslims to prove their citizenship is a direct targeting of individuals based on their religious identity, and directly violates India’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” Commissioner Stephen Schneck said.
In its 2025 annual report, USCIRF recommended that the U.S. State Department designate India a “Country of Particular Concern” for what it described as systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom. Indian officials have previously dismissed USCIRF’s assessments, calling them “biased and inaccurate” and rejecting the panel’s authority to comment on India’s internal affairs.
