India police arrest 74 Rohingya refugees in latest crackdown | Rohingya News
Those arrested include 14 women and five children living in six districts of Uttar Pradesh state “after crossing the border illegally,” police said.
Indian police say they have arrested 74 Rohingya refugees for living “illegally” in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Activists condemned the move as an indiscriminate crackdown on people fleeing violence.
The members of the predominantly Muslim Rohingya community were arrested in six cities in the state and ten of the fugitives were youths, police said on Monday.
Those arrested included 55 men, 14 women and five children who lived in six districts of Uttar Pradesh “after crossing the border illegally,” police said in their statement.
According to a report by the Indian website Scroll.in, at least one of the women arrested is pregnant.
Campaign group Rohingya Human Rights Initiative said the detained people had lived in the area for about a decade after fleeing persecution in Myanmar.
Many did physical labor, including garbage collection, said initiative director Sabber Kyaw Min. “They were just asking for refuge,” he added.
“The community is demanding … an end to incarceration.”
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar to countries like Bangladesh, which borders India, after Myanmar’s military killed tens of thousands of members of the minority community, raped women and burned dozens of their villages.
The United Nations said the military campaign against the Rohingya was carried out with “genocidal intent” and some of the military generals are facing genocide trials at the International Court of Justice.
New Delhi is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which sets out the rights of refugees and states’ obligations to protect them, nor does it have its own refugee protection laws.
According to Rohingya Human Rights Initiative co-founder Ali Johar, there were about 18,000 Rohingya living in India early last year. Proceedings are pending before the Supreme Court against their deportation.
Rohingya activists in India have protested the arrests and called on the government to honor its commitments to human rights and democratic principles.
“We must protect the dignity of the detainees. Rohingya are human beings, survivors of genocide and deserve the basic freedom and dignity afforded to all others,” said Kyaw Min.
“The detainees have applied for asylum in India and have not committed any crime. Their protection is obligated by international law, previous court decisions and the Constitution of India. Those detained include pregnant women, children and disabled people who suffer violence,” he added.