THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Railways is on high alert following a Central Government warning that a ‘’huge number’’ of Rohingya refugees are making a beeline for Kerala. The Railway Protection Force (RPF) has issued a warning to its units in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in this regard, along with a list of 14 trains on which the refugees from Myanmar are likely to be moving to the state with their families.
On Thursday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, speaking in Kochi, too had warned the state regarding the Rohingya plan.‘‘Input indicates that a huge number of Rohingyas (an ethnic group of Myanmar’s Rakhine province) are travelling from every corner of northeast states and ultimately heading towards Kerala,’’ said the alert issued on Wednesday by the RPF Principal Chief Security Commissioner.
It goes on to add, ‘’All Rohingyas are travelling in groups along with their families.’’
RPF officers and staff have been asked to detain them and hand them over to the police for further action.
An ethnic minority in Myanmar, the Rohingyas began fleeing the country in 2015 after the Myanmar armed forces launched operations against what they termed Rohingya militants. Thousands of Rohingyas are estimated to have made their way to different parts of India through the porous eastern borders that the country shares with Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Reportedly, refugees are entering Kerala in the guise of migrant labourers. And in the absence of accurate data on migrant labour in the state, it will be hard to identify them once they vanish into the midst of the state’s population.A senior RPF officer in Thiruvananthapuram said no Rohingya has been detained so far in the state. But RPF was tracking their movement with the help of the local police under instructions from the RPF HQ.
on the wrong track
The RPF alert lists 14 south-bound trains originating from various railway stations in the eastern states of West Bengal and Assam. They include two Silchar-Thiruvananthapuram express trains, Shalimar-Chennai Express, Shalimar-Thiruvananthapuram Express, the Howrah-Chennai trains, Howrah-Cape Express, Howrah-Thiruchirapally Express, Guwahati-Tambaram Express and the Dibrugarh-Tambaram Express.