By Aliza Noor
Why did they do this to us? Haven’t we faced enough? They should have sent the whole family, why separate and break us like this?”
As tears struck her eyes, a haggard Rohingya refugee, Shamina* (38) spoke about how five members of her family were deported abruptly, leaving families like hers in utter shock and fear.
It wasn’t just another deportation. Shamina’s family is among the 43 Rohingya refugees who were arrested, flown from Hindon airport to Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar islands, shifted on boats and then with life-jackets, allegedly dumped in the international waters in Southern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region by Indian authorities.
Coincidentally, they were deported on the same day the Supreme Court observed that if Rohingya refugees in India are found to be foreigners, they must be deported, despite possessing their identity cards issued by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
Among these Rohingya refugees abandoned into the sea were children as young as 16 and elderly as old as 63 years old, a cancer patient and those with other ailments.
DVB (Democratic Voice of Burma) has also reported that around 40 Rohingyas were deported from India.
Taking note of this deportation, UN expert has begun an inquiry into such “unconscionable, unacceptable acts” while seeking more information from the Indian government.
This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.
