7 Rohingya deported after SC clears hurdles

• India deported seven Rohingya men to neighbouring Myanmar over six years after they entered the country illegally and jailed, shortly after the Supreme Court paved the way for the first such action against the community.
• The move sparked criticism from rights groups with Amnesty International alleging that the Indian government is conducting a “relentless smear” campaign against Rohingya immigrants and that it sets a “dangerous” precedent for all asylum seekers in the country.
• The men, who are in the age bracket of 26-32 years, were detained in 2012. They were later lodged in Cachar Central Jail in Silchar in Assam after a court convicted them under the Foreigners Act, holding them as illegal immigrants.
• Indian and Myanmar security officials exchanged documents before the deportation of the men on the India-Myanmar border at Moreh in Manipur.

Rohingya:

• The Rohingya people are a stateless Indo-Aryan-speaking people who reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar. There were an estimated 1 million Rohingya living in Myanmar before the 2016–17 crisis. By December 2017, an estimated 625,000 refugees from Rakhine, Myanmar, had crossed the border into Bangladesh since August 2017.
• Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority who have faced persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

By: Ziyaur Rahman