DYFI Moves Supreme Court Against Deportation of Rohingyan Child Refugees

The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) has filed a petition in the Supreme Court to protect the Rohingyan child refugees in India against deportation to Myanmar, where a genocide is underway against the minority community.

Nearly 40,000 Rohingya Muslims have sought refuge in camps in India, of which more than 12,000 are estimated to be children.

But the BJP-led NDA government remains hell-bent on deporting the Rohingya Muslims, recognised as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, and has even called them “a threat to national security”.

The DYFI has cited the United Nations’ Convention of Child Rights (1989), which India signed in 1992, to secure and protect the right against deportation of the child refugees.

The Convention mandates that refugee children should not be sent back to their countries of origin when there is a threat to their lives, and that signatory countries must protect the health and educational rights of these children.

As a signatory, India is bound to treat all children, including those who do not belong to the Indian nationality, with all the rights enshrined under the Convention.

The petition points out that if the Rohingyan refugee children are deported to Myanamar, it would be a violation of Articles 2, 6, 7, 19, 20, 22, 31 and 37 of the U.N. Convention.

“The ‘principle of non-refoulement’ is binding on all states whether they have signed UN's refugee convention (1951) or not. The customary law says refugees cannot be forcibly returned to a place where they face persecution or threats to their life or freedom,” says the petition. Non-refoulement is a principle of international law which forbids a country from returning asylum seekers to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

Speaking to Newsclick, P.A. Mohamed Riyas, the all-India president of DYFI, said, “The Modi-led BJP government's attitude towards the Rohingyan refugees is a stark example of the inhuman policies of the BJP.”

Riyas added that DYFI’s petition seeks to correct the negative attitude of the central government with regard to the plight of the Rohingyan refugees, who are effectively stateless as they are denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar nationality law.

The Rohingyas have endured several cycles of military violence, beginning in 1978,  which forced tens of thousands of them to flee to Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries. India’s decision to deport the Rohingya refugees has drawn sharp criticism from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR).

Filed under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, the petition states that such a deportation, when the government is “fully being aware and conscious that the people/children being would be killed in transit/on reaching the country of their origin, would also amount to the violation of Fundamental Rights guaranteed to such people under Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution.”

The DYFI has sought directions from the apex court to the Centre not to deport the Rohingyan children currently residing in India, and to provide basic amenities to the Rohingya Muslims ensuring they live in human conditions “as required by International law in treatment of refugees”.

A delegation of the DYFI had recently visited the Rohingyan refugee camps.

Advocate Subhash Chandran has submitted the petition in the court on behalf of the DYFI Central Executive Committee’s Legal Sub-committee.

Senior Advocate P.V. Surendranath and Advocate Resmitha R. Chandran would be representing the DYFI in the case.

There are already petitions being heard in the Supreme Court, including one by Prashant Bhuashan, against the NDA government’s plan to deport the Rohingyas.