Rohingya refugees in India fear being forced back to Myanmar
Rohingya refugees have a miserable life in camps across India, yet prefer their present existence to ethnic cleansing. TRT World’s photographer visits one camp under threat from the Indian authorities.
Most of the Rohingya refugees find it difficult to earn a living. Because of the difficult living conditions in the camps, their children are often vulnerable to waterborne diseases.
NEW DELHI — Sitting in a partially lit, make-do shed, Mohamad Rafiq has a dark look on his face. It’s been a year since he fled the conflict-ridden land of Myanmar to escape the state-led ethnic cleansing of his people.
Now he lives in a refugee camp in New Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj neighbourhood, on the banks of the River Yamuna. But even this rudimentary shelter is in jeopardy.
The 35-year-old man saw bloodshed in his homeland. He left his native village in Myanmar and reached India in the hope of finding a better life. Yet here in India too, the situation has turned out to be far more difficult and uncertain than he had expected.
In the wee hours of March 1, 2017, Rafiq left his four young children and wife in Myanmar because he didn’t want to risk the lives of his family during the harrowing crossing into India.
“I thought once I reach India I make a way for them to come over. But things aren’t going as I thought,” Mohamad Rafiq said.
Rafiq always remains worried not only for his own situation, but also for the well-being of his family back in Myanmar.
Mohamad Rafiq, 44, left Myanmar a year ago in the hope that life would be better in India and that he could bring his family over once he was settled. So far, he hasn’t been able to do that.
Rafiq, like many other Rohingya, made it into India via Bangladesh without any legal documents. First, he traveled through Bangladesh and then crossed over to India at Satkhira, a border district of Bangladesh. From here, he went to Hyderabad, the southern state of India where many other Rohingya were already living.
After making the journey to India, the biggest challenge almost every Rohingya faces is to find somewhere to live and earn a living. Rafiq was no exception.
“I initially stayed in a slum in Hyderabad that has become a refugee camp,” he said.
He worked as a scrap collector there for about six months, before moving to the Indian capital of New Delhi to look for a more reliable job.
“When you can’t find decent work, you have no option but to do any menial work you can find which remains the case with many Rohingya Muslims coming over to India” said Ali Johar, a Rohingya who works a translator at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in New Delhi.
Rohingya children living in Kalindi Kunj camp don’t have access to schooling. Instead they spend their time roaming the camp and sometimes helping their parents with daily chores.
All 47 of the families living in the refugee camp in Kalindi Kunj in New Delhi have similarly tragic stories to Rafiq.
“Twelve years ago, my husband was taken by the military in Myanmar. Even now I have no idea what happened to him,” said Aamina, 52, living in the Kalindi Kunj camp.
She managed to flee to India after giving up all hope of finding her husband along with her two sons, but the worst was yet to come. She lost her youngest son a few months ago. He died after complaining of abdominal pain. He was never treated but the camp's unhygienic environment appears to have been one of the primary reasons for his illness. Now her other surviving son, who she relies on to support her, has also become seriously ill from conditions in the camp.
Aamina, 52, says fleeing to India was the only way to save her and her children’s lives after her husband was taken by the Myanmar military 12 years ago.
The land is provided by the Zakat Foundation, a local not-for-profit organisation that works with underprivileged minorities in India, especially Muslims. The NGO runs many schools and also provides scholarships to support top students in their studies. The NGO also provides basic education to some of the Rohingya children. Others help their parents to earn a living, mostly by rag picking.
Iman Hussain, 70, and Zohra, 65, a couple from Myanmar are living in the Kalindi Kund camp along with more than 40 other families. Here they are carrying a bucket full of filtered water. Hygiene and sanitation remain a big concern at this camp.
Rohingya camps lack even basic facilities such as clean water, proper sanitation, healthcare and education. The lack of proper healthcare make these refugees vulnerable to diseases, especially the children.
“We are often not in a situation to have a better health care, it's difficult to run our family with what we are earning,” said another refugee, Dil Mohammad, who is in his late 50s and has been in India for around seven years.
Dil Mohamad, 57, was among the first Rohingya to seek refuge from persecution in Myanmar in India. He came some 21 years ago and has lived in poverty for most of that time.
Around 14,000 Rohingyas are registered with the UNHCR as residing in India, while another 40,000 are estimated to be there unofficially.
Yet the Indian government has shown little interest in proving basic facilities to the refugees. Instead, the government is attempting to begin the process of deporting the refugees back to Myanmar.
A Rohingya Muslim girl washing clothes at the Kalindi Kunj refugee camp.
Kiren Rijiju, India's minister of state for home affairs, said on September 5 that, "I want to tell the international organisations [that] whether the Rohingya are registered under the UNHCR or not, they are illegal immigrants in India and as per law they stand to be deported."
Najma, 7, (right) and Fatima, 8, (left) might not know the meaning of the word “refugee,” but they do understood how dark life can be. These two orphan girls lost their father two years in Myanmar. Their mother remarried and left the children with their grandmother. They spend most of their time in local religious schools or helping their grandmother with housework.
Two refugees are attempting to challenge the central government’s ability to do this by taking a case to the Supreme Court. From the government’s perspective, India is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, or its 1967 Protocol, and doesn’t have a national refugee protection framework. Refugee advocates, meanwhile, point to the fact that India has a history of granting refuge to outsiders, even if this is not currently being extended to the Rohingya.
Most Rohingya refugees who make it to India struggle to find decent housing and end up living in slums.
These refugees plead on humanitarian grounds as they don’t have option of going back to their county.
“The UN should take some steps to make our life better, we are living the worst life,” says Riyaz Ahamd, a Rohingya Muslim living in another New Delhi slum in the southern neighbourhood of Shaheen Bagh. “I pray all the time that no one should ever go through what we have gone through and no one ever should have the life we are living.”
Some local NGOs are helping Rohingya children continue their education by providing them free schooling, uniforms and books.
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