India in talks with Bangladesh on Rohingyas refugees' deportation: Rajnath Singh in Rajya Sabha

Rajnath Singh told the Rajya Sabha that centre has issued orders to all states and union territories to ensure that illegal immigrants, including Rohingyas, do not possess Indian documents.
Rohingya refugees (File Photo | AP)
Rohingya refugees (File Photo | AP)

NEW DELHI: The centre on Wednesday made it clear that it would deport Rohingya refugees and said talks with Bangladesh were on for their deportation because "Rohingyas are illegally staying in India".

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the Rajya Sabha that centre has issued orders to all states and union territories to ensure that illegal immigrants, including Rohingyas, do not possess Indian documents.

The Home M informed the Parliament that the Centre has sent an advisory to state governments to identify illegal immigrants and take their biometric and ensure that they don't have any such document to claim Indian citizenship in the future.

"After we get report from states, we will send to the External Affairs ministry," Singh said, adding that if the need arises, India will talk to both Bangladesh and Myanmar so that Rohingyas refugees are deported. Singh's deputy Kiren Rijiju also spoke about the issue of deportation and said that as many as 52 illegal Bangladeshis will be deported on July 30 from Assam.

"GoI is impressing on them to take these people back. The process will be as per the discussion we have with a sovereign country. I cannot give assurance here," he said, responding to a supplementary questioning the Foreigners Act to defend the Centre's stand, the minister said that the centre has powers to identify, detect and deport anyone who is staying illegally in India.

Maintaining that Rohingyas have entered India illegally, Rijiju said they are staying in various states such as Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Jaipur. "The central government has clearly given direction to states to identify, detect and start the process of deportation of Rohingyas who have entered illegally.

The Bangladesh government has agreed, identified and accepted the identity of 52 people as Bangladeshis. So, they have agreed these 52 people including one minority will be deported on July 30 at 11 am at Mankachar IPC in Assam," Rijiju said. To another supplementary question on keeping Indians in detention camps with an ulterior motive, the minister said no motive can be attached to anybody kept in detention. "Only those declared as foreigners by tribunal can be kept in detention camps.

The government on its own cannot declare anybody as foreigner and put them in a detention camp," he added. Rohingya Muslims fled to India after violence in the western Rakhine State of Myanmar. Almost 700,000 refugees have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar and arrived in Cox's Bazar since August 2017, according to the UN.

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