New Delhi: Three months after seven Rohingya men were deported to Myanmar from Assam through the Manipur border, five members of a Rohingya family have been handed over to the Myanmarese authorities on January 3.
Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, additional director general of police (border), Assam, has confirmed to The Wire that those who have been deported were dispatched from the state’s Tezpur detention centre on January 2 and were be handed over to a Manipur police team in Silchar. The Manipur police thereafter handed them over to the Myanmarese authorities.
According to news reports, a Rohingya man, who entered India without papers and was apprehended in Ambala, Haryana, was also deported across the Moreh border of Manipur on January 2.
The names of those deported are Mohammad Ayas, Mohammad Riyas, Ahmed Hussain, Toyaba Khatun and Azida Begum.
Also read: India’s Decision to Deport the Rohingya Is a Violation of International and Domestic Obligations
As per official records, they are residents of the Buthitang area in Myanmar. They belong to a single family – headed by one Mohammad Imam Hussain – and were apprehended in 2014 for violating the Foreigners’ Act. Reports said since the identity of two minors from the family was yet to be confirmed by the Myanmar government, it was decided that Hussain would stay back with them and the rest of the family would be deported.
In October 2018, seven youth, reportedly belonging to Rakhine state of Myanmar, were deported across the Moreh border of Manipur. They were nabbed by Assam police for violating the Foreigners’ Act and jailed for three months in Silchar Jail. At the end of the jail term, they were shifted to the detention camp housed within the jail, meant for foreigners awaiting deportation.
Their deportation was the first after the Supreme Court refused to interfere in the matter. According to government estimates, there are about 40,000 Rohingya residing in the country.