Asma Aletar was supposed to get married on May 20. But only her gifts and bridal dress remain in her makeshift house in New Delhi. Asma and her mother were among the 40 Rohingya refugees pushed to the Andaman Sea by Indian authorities after detaining them on May 06.
“They should have taken me instead,” laments her uncle, Mohammad Ismail, who has remained her guardian since she lost her father during childhood. “I once saved her from the genocide, how can they snatch her from me?”
Thomas Andrews, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, has begun an inquiry into the deportation, calling it “unconscionable, unacceptable acts” while urging the Indian government to refrain from inhumane and life-threatening treatment of Rohingya refugees, including their repatriation into perilous conditions in Myanmar.
“I am deeply concerned by what appears to be a blatant disregard for the lives and safety of those who require international protection. Such cruel actions would be an affront to human decency and represent a serious violation of the principle of non-refoulment, a fundamental tenet of international law that prohibits states from returning individuals to a territory where they face threats to their lives or freedom,” Andrews said.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
