“They want to accept us but as foreigners”: Aligarh’s Rohingya refugees on Myanmar taking back seven Rohingyas

Mohammad Bilal, 43, is proud of the “community centre” that he and other Rohingyas have built with their own hands in Aligarh.

It is a simple tin shed with a cement floor, covered wall-to-wall with a thin rug.

Each refugee contributed what they could, deciding against asking for outside help. It’s as the Prophet said, Bilal says: “Neeche ke haath se upar ka haath achcha hai,” (The hand that offers a blessing is better than the hand that offers support.)

Just outside is a small space of flattened mud-earth lined on all sides by plants including kadhi patta.

As Bilal waters them, Hafiz Mohammad Syed (26), who tutors Rohingya children at the centre, says, “Ye saat Rohingya liya (lekin) woh dil se nahi liya, woh duniya ko dikhaane ke liye (liya).” (They have accepted the seven Rohingyas but not from the heart; it’s just for show.) 

He is talking about the seven Rohingya asylum seekers who were deported by the Indian government to Myanmar on 4 October 2018, after the Supreme Court rejected a humanitarian plea on their behalf to stay their deportation.

The Rohingyas are an ethnic minority from Myanmar who are denied citizenship under the country’s 1982 Citizenship Law, which thereby renders them stateless.

Since 2012, they have faced systematic violence from the military, police and even citizens. This has led them to flee their country and seek refuge elsewhere.

There are about 18,000 Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers in India, according to UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic.

The seven deported Rohingyas fled to India in 2012 and were detained in Silchar Central Jail, Assam.

The refugees say that they were both worried and afraid when they heard news of the deportation.

One of the main reasons that the Rohingyas are not trusting of Myanmar’s move to take back the seven refugees is the “Certificate of Identity”.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the Myanmar government, having agreed to accept them, was providing this to the Rohingyas.

Yet is this certificate the same as a passport or Aadhar card that is issued to Indian citizens, asks Mohammad Syed.

He says that if this were the case, the Rohingyas would leave for Myanmar of their own accord.

But clearly it’s not. Mehta himself said that it is a “travel document issued in the absence of any other identification document.”

And that — Myanmar’s continued denial of citizenship to the Rohingyas — is the biggest problem, says Bilal: “Hum logon ko pardes bana ke lene ke liye tayyar hai.” (They want to accept us but as foreigners.)

Jannat Ali (32) adds that giving such a certificate is not enough; there also has to be a guarantee of security.

In the military crackdown of August last year that Human Rights Watch called “ethnic cleansing”, Ali lost 10–15 of his relatives in his native village in Buthidaung Township. First, he says, the military shot them and then slit their throats.

To India they are grateful for providing them a safe haven though the local police in Aligarh have recently been in touch with them on a more regular basis.

One of the refugees said that inspectors advised them to follow the law and not accept new Rohingyas from other parts of India into their community. Two months ago, the police did a survey of their population.

But they don’t feel threatened, they say. India, they believe, will not deport them.

“Dar hai lekin Indian sarkar itna zulm wala nahi hai,” says Jannat Ali. (We are afraid but we don’t think that the Indian government is so unjust.)

Bilal says that there is also a difference between the seven who were deported and the Aligarh Rohingyas. The former didn’t have UNHCR-issued refugee cards; they do.

These cards, he points out, were not issued because of UNHCR’s clout but because the government permitted it.

If deportation does happen, Shamsul Alam, 32, says that he would rather that they kill him: “Hum sab khatm ho jayenge yahaan pe lekin ye bachcha to bachenge, wahaan pe ek bhi nahi bachega.” (Here, even if we refugees die, at least our children will survive, over there (in Myanmar) no one will survive.)

Northeast Now reported that the government is set to deport another 23 Rohingyas currently held in detention centres in Assam.

In another story, citing unnamed sources, it stated that the seven Rohingyas had reached Kyauktaw township, their home in Rakhine State.

Bilal said that this is because the world is watching Myanmar.

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