No Rohingya immigrant sent back from state so far: MHA

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, August 17

Amid the growing clamour for deportation of Rohingya refugees living illegally in the state, the Centre has admitted that not even a single Rohingya immigrant has been deported from the state till date.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs stated this while responding to an RTI application filed by Rohit Choudhary, a Jammu-based activist, seeking details on the deportation of Rohingya refugees from the state.

“No Rohingya immigrants have been deported so far,” Pramod Kumar, Director, Foreigners Division, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, said in a single-liner response.

Last month, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, in the Rajya Sabha, had said India was in talks with Bangladesh over the deportation of Rohingya immigrants and the process would begin after getting the status report from the states where they were living illegally.

Rajnath had also said all states had been issued an advisory that no identification documents be issued to the Rohingya immigrants.

The state government had admitted in the Legislative Assembly last year that 5,743 Rohingya refugees were illegally staying in the state, predominately in Jammu and Samba districts. Sources, however, claimed that their number could go up to over 10,000 in Jammu.

While the state government claimed there was no instance of Rohingya immigrants involved in militancy-related incidents in the state, voices against their illegal stay in Jammu had gone shriller after the Sunjuwan terror attack in February, where the involvement of Rohingya immigrants, settled in the vicinity of the Sunjawan military station, was suspected.

On August 8, the Jammu police had recovered Rs 30 lakh from a shanty of Rohingya immigrants in the Channi Himmat area here.

What Rajnath had said 

• In July, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said India was in talks with Bangladesh over the deportation of Rohingya immigrants and the process would begin after getting the status report from the states where they were living illegally
• He had also said all states had been issued an advisory that no identification documents be issued to the Rohingya immigrants