Rage Against Refugees

Rage against refugees The sudden rise in hostility against the Rohingya and calls for their deportation underscore the urgent need for a refugee protection

- Divya Trivedi

THE past few months saw targeted violence and incitement to violence against Rohingya refugees in the country. Seemingly separate incidents converged to create a narrative of these refugees being criminal elements who deserved to be ousted from the country. (The Rohingya are Muslims who were forced to flee Myanmar in the face of serious persecution and human rights violations.)

In the early hours of April 14, five jhuggis, or hutments, belonging to Rohingya families were gutted in a fire in the Bhagwati Nagar area of Jammu. Earlier, 20-30 masked men thrashed men, women and children in Patta Bohri on the outskirts of Jammu and burnt the scrap they collected. They also told landlords to evict them or face the consequences.

These incidents came soon after an open threat was issued by the Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Jammu, which is affiliated to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). In a press conference, Rakesh Gupta, the chamber president, had said the State and Central governments should ensure that “such settlers should be deported within one month”. He asked for “the people on whose land these foreigners” had settled to be booked under the Public Safety Act, failing which the chamber would launch an “Identify and Kill Movement” against them. The chamber called the Rohingya and Bangladeshis “criminals, drug traffickers, possible human bombs and harbourers to be used by militant organisations, criminals with no record of their names and identity disowned by their own countries” and said it would be “no offence to deal with such” people.