Anti-Rohingya rhetoric in Delhi election campaigns worries refugees

Political sparring ahead of assembly elections has been accompanied by a crackdown

- Debarshi Dasgupta

NEW DELHI - She fled the threat of sexual violence and even death from Buthidaung, a town in Myanmar's Rakhine state, in 2013. Along with her family, the 21-year-old Rohingya refugee crossed from Bangladesh to India's West Bengal state before arriving in Delhi.

"We didn't have India or Bangladesh in mind. We just wanted to save our lives, so we followed those fleeing," said Ms Rukshana (not her real name).

Since then, Ms Rukshana, like thousands of Rohingya who fled persecution by Buddhist extremists and genocide in Myanmar, has found safety in India. But her life has been shadowed by the fear of being detained or, worse, deported back to Myanmar, where her community continues to be targeted.

India is home to around 40,000 Rohingya, according to the government. About 22,500, including Ms Rukshana and her family, are registered as refugees with the UN refugee agency UNHCR. But India does not recognise them as such, and instead considers Rohingya entering its territory without permission as illegal migrants.

Since 2017, India has deported at least 16 Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar, violating the principle of non-refoulement, which bars the deportation of refugees to places where they may face persecution.

In recent weeks, these concerns have been heightened, especially for the estimated 4,000 or so Rohingya in Delhi, who find themselves being election bogeymen as campaigning hots up for the Delhi assembly elections in February 2025.

On Nov 15, Mr Vinai Kumar Saxena, the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi, who is appointed federally by the president, ordered a crackdown on illegal migrants, claiming a "sudden spurt" in alleged illegal migrants trying to obtain Indian identification documents illegally in order to get on the city's voter rolls.