India Is Accused of Inhumanely Deporting Rohingya Refugees

A woman in a head scarf with her face away from the camera holds a small child in her arms next to a metal shack along a dirt road.
Rohingya refugees at a camp on the outskirts of Chennai, India, last year.Credit…R. Satish Babu/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The United Nations has called for an investigation into “credible reports” that Indian authorities rounded up Rohingya refugees and expelled them, in some cases by putting them into the Andaman Sea off the shore of the same country they had escaped from, fearing persecution and death.

The episode appeared to be part of a broader recent crackdown, as officials of India’s government used a moment of conflict with its neighbor Pakistan to expand a campaign of oppression against minority Muslims.

“The idea that Rohingya refugees have been cast into the sea from naval vessels is nothing short of outrageous,” said Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. “I am seeking further information and testimony regarding these developments and implore the Indian government to provide a full accounting of what happened.”

He urged the Indian government to refrain from “inhumane and life-threatening treatment of Rohingya refugees, including their repatriation into perilous conditions in Myanmar.”

The Indian government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

As tensions escalated with Pakistan after India accused it of having a supporting hand in a terror attack that killed over two dozen Indians last month, the Indian authorities announced punitive measures, including expelling Pakistani citizens.

Officials of right-wing governments across several Indian states rounded up thousands of Muslims, purportedly Rohingya or Bangladeshi people living illegally in India. Such labels, along with “Pakistani,” are often used to target Muslim migrants from other parts of India. The most sweeping actions were in Gujarat, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, and in Rajasthan.

While a majority of those detained turned out to be Indian citizens and were later released, those who were identified as Rohingya and Bangladeshi have been deported in large numbers, including some with refugee documents that were supposed to give them protection.

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties, an India-based human rights group, criticized the move. “At the very least, the Rohingyas are entitled to due process under existing law which requires that the detainee get notice, opportunity of hearing and representation,” the group said in a statement.

Authorities in neighboring Bangladesh said India had pushed hundreds of people into its country at unpopulated border areas. Nearly a hundred were expelled into the Sundarbans, a mangrove forest between the two countries, and had to be rescued by Bangladesh’s coast guard.

“If someone is proven to be a citizen of our country, we will accept them,” Khalilur Rahman, the Bangladesh government’s national security adviser, told reporters. “But this must be done through formal channels.”

The deported Rohingya appear to have mostly been in Assam, in the country’s northeast, where India has built a large detention facility, and New Delhi, the capital.

Rohingya refugees in Delhi said Indian authorities had rounded up dozens of them last week. They were taken to a police station, and never returned.

Sadeq Shalom, a Rohingya Christian refugee in New Delhi who works as an education consultant, said his older brother and several other family members were picked up and were part of a group of 40 people who were put into the sea. He said 15 of the 40 were Christians, and their pleas that they faced double persecution — as Rohingya from the state, and then as a Christian minority from the Muslim majority in their area — were in vain.

Another refugee in New Delhi, David Nazir, said his elderly parents were picked up and were also among the 40 people put to sea. He learned what had happened to them only after Mr. Shalom got a call from his brother, who borrowed a fisherman’s phone upon reaching Myanmar’s shore.

“He told me that the Indian authorities had forced them off a navy vessel in the Andaman Sea and made them swim into Myanmar territory with nothing but life jackets,” Mr. Shalom said in an interview.

Their biggest fear, Mr. Nazir said, was that the Myanmar army, which they had fled, was waiting for them. But in his phone call, Mr. Shalom’s brother said that all 40 were safe with the National Unity Government of Myanmar, which began operating in resistance after the country’s 2021 military coup.

Colin Gonsalves, a lawyer representing the Rohingya in India’s supreme court, said there are about 1,000 who have sought refuge in Delhi and about 20,000 all over India.

On social media, the Indian government’s actions drew comparisons to how India’s own immigrants were recently deported from the United States by the Trump administration, sent home by plane in shackles — a move that spurred widespread outrage.

Mr. Gonsalves said that his appeal at the country’s supreme court to put a pause on the deportations was rejected.

“We expect a little more compassion,” Mr. Gonsalves said. “Throwing refugees into the sea and then they land up in a war zone is one of the most barbaric practices a nation can indulge in.”

Saif Hasnat contributed reporting from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Mujib Mashal from New Delhi.

Suhasini Raj is a reporter based in New Delhi who has covered India for The Times since 2014.