India strikes to deport Rohingya woman to Myanmar, attracts criticism

A 14-year-old Rohingya Muslim woman has been taken to a border city in northeastern India for deportation to Myanmar, police officers mentioned on Thursday, because the U.N. refugee company and rights teams pressed New Delhi to halt the method.
Tens of hundreds of Rohingya, who’re denied citizenship of their residence nation Myanmar, have lived in India for years however Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities regards them as a safety menace and has began detaining them.
Police have taken the woman to a border crossing in Manipur state, the place paperwork was being finalised to ship her again to coup-hit Myanmar. She had been sheltered for greater than a yr within the neighbouring Indian state of Assam, whereas her household lived as refugees in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.
“It is under process,” Assam police official B.L. Meena instructed Reuters, referring to her deportation. “This was previously scheduled.”

Diba Roy, founding father of non-profit Nivedita Nari Sangshta in Assam’s Silchar city that had cared for the woman, mentioned native authorities had been knowledgeable that she didn’t have household in Myanmar.
“But she was sent to Myanmar,” Roy mentioned, including that she had acquired directions from federal authorities handy over the woman to native police this week. “We have only obeyed the order.”
India’s international and residential ministries didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
The U.N. refugee company, UNHCR, opposed the deportation.
“The situation in Myanmar is not yet conducive for voluntary return in a safe, secure, and sustainable manner, and returning the child to Myanmar may place her at immediate risk of serious harm,” a UNHCR spokesperson mentioned.
Police in India’s northern area of Jammu and Kashmir final month detained greater than 150 Rohingya refugees and began a course of to deport them again to Myanmar.

India will not be a signatory to the U.N. Refugee Convention and rejects a U.N. place that deporting the Rohingya violates the precept of refoulement – sending refugees again to a spot the place they face hazard.