By Aliza Noor
Days after it was reported that around 40 Rohingya refugees in India were “left” in international waters, journalists and lawyers held a key panel discussion in the Press Club of India on Monday, 19 May.
Headlined ‘Breaking the Silence: Justice for Rohingya Refugees,’ the panelists included, Human rights activist Harsh Mander, Senior Advocates Colin Gonsalves and Prashant Bhushan, senior journalist Pamela Philipose, The Azadi Project’s Priyali Sur and writer Rita Manchanda.
The Quint reported an in-depth story of the families whose loved ones were abruptly taken away and its impact on them. In our story, we included details of the calls made with the deportees and the modus operandi of the deportation.
For context, around 40 Rohingya refugees were arrested from different parts of Delhi, 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.
India which proclaims ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one big family) claims to be the world’s largest democracy. But has the government got any humanity left? Do we follow any norm of International law, rule of law or even our Constitution?
Advocate Prashant Bhushan
“Probably the most persecuted minority in the whole world and we have pushed them back like this,” lawyers and journalists observed.
Sur cited case studies which recounted years of unjust treatment of Rohingyas by Indian authorities.
“It’s almost a taboo to talk about Rohingyas. If you so much as use the word ‘Rohingya,’ you can be labelled as an anti-national. But treating them with respect is not anti-national, it’s living up to our constitutional values,” she stated.
This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.
