Press Release
August 2, 2023
The Arakan Rohingya National Alliance (ARNA) expresses its deep concern over India’s degrading treatment or oppression of Rohingya refugees in India. ARNA strongly condemned such treatment of Rohingya asylum seekers.
India has a long tradition of giving protection to asylum seekers from many countries, including a large number of refugees from Myanmar. But Rohingya refugees in India are discriminated against, arrested, tortured, and sometimes deported to Myanmar, where they face atrocity crimes, including genocide. Even their shanty houses or shelters are seldom burned down or destroyed in several places.
There is documented evidence of Indian authorities beating Rohingya refugees, denying them due process rights, and indefinitely detaining hundreds, in some cases, for several years. Most of the detained Rohingya refugees are in New Delhi, Jammu, Manipur, and Assam for immigration-related offenses.
On July 24, 2023, Indian police reportedly arrested more than 70 Rohingya refugees in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. On July 18, 2023, hundreds of Rohingya refugees detained in Jammu protested their indefinite detention, including through a hunger strike. Indian authorities responded with tear gas and beatings, injuring several refugees.
The foremost important for the Rohingya refugees now is to return home. But they cannot return where the genocide is still ongoing. The military or authorities in Myanmar have no political will to repatriate Rohingya refugees from India and elsewhere since they could eliminate the Rohingya people with rampant impunity.
ARNA calls on the authorities in India to cease violence, release all those unjustly detained, and act according to the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) that it accepted and signed on 14 October 1997. The Indian government should also investigate violations within its detention facilities and hold officials found responsible to account.
Therefore, ARNA urges the Government of India and the U.N. with the international community:
- To review this harsh decision of the Indian authorities and take necessary measures to ensure that the Rohingya refugees receive the assistance they desperately need until their safe and dignified return to their homes in Arakan.
- To step up their support for the Rohingya people and their refugees by timely responding with essential supplies that help them and their children survive and recover from trauma.
- In this dire situation, it is the utmost to exert effective pressure on the authorities in India to stop the ill-treatment and beating of Rohingya refugees, denying them due process rights, and indefinitely detaining hundreds of Rohingya Refugees arbitrarily.