Meghalaya IPS officer advises Centre to formulate policies for foreigners

Central government should formulate a policy for foreigners, especially for Rohingya as Myanmar never accept back Rohingya refugees who enter India through their borders, said a paper submitted by a senior police posted in Meghalaya at the last week's annual All-India Conference of DIG/IGs of Police in Delhi.

The document named 'Concerted strategy to identify overstaying foreigners in India and their deportation'  written by senior IPS officer, Davis NR Marak, who is posted as DIGP (Eastern range) Meghalaya, stated: "Meghalaya shares a long international border with Bangladesh and therefore also faces the problem of illegal immi gration of foreigners especially, Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingya refugees, and in some cases, international human trafficking rackets have been busted."

"It is also the experience of Meghalaya Police that the states of Northeast are being used not only for illegal entry by Bangladeshi or Myanmarese nationals into India but the northeastern states are also used as a corridor for human trafficking," it stated further.

Davis NR Marak in his document said that the Rohingya issue is even more complex because they are Myanmarese refugees who are now infiltrating into India from Bangladesh. Whenever, illegal Rohingya refugees are caught and legal processes are initiated for deportation to either Bangladesh or Myanmar, both the countries refuse to accept them back and hence there is an urgent need by the government to formulate policies for tackling Rohingya. 

Raising questions on the Border Security Force ( BSF ) , Marak said that the BSF guarding the India- Bangladesh border sends back infiltartors  back to Bangladesh which in fact indicates that there is no specific policy for Bangladesh nationals or Rohingya Muslims. 

He also said that Government of India should issue an specific guildelines to regulate such practices. 

"There is an urgent need for the central government to formulate policies for foreigners' stay, deportation, camps; especially for Rohingya who are not recognised by either Myanmar or Bangladesh," Marak recommended.

When India Today NE tried to contact Davis NR Marak, he declined to comment anything on the matter.  

For decades, the Rohingya have suffered violence, discrimination and persecution in Myanmar. Their largest exodus began in August 2017 after a massive wave of violence broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, forcing more than 700,000 people - half of them children - to seek refuge in Bangladesh. 

Myanmar government does not recognise Rohingyas as their citizens. Only about 40,000 Rohingyas are acknowledged as citizens in their country.Even though, the Myanmar government derecognised Rohingya Muslims as citizens way back in 1982, thousands of them started leaving the country only in 2012.

In 2012, the Rohingyas saw themselves being evicted from their homes, their land confiscated and their villages and habitations attacked by Myanmar's military. The United Nations has recognised Rohingya Muslims as one the most persecuted ethnic groups in the world.

As Rohingyas speak Bengali, they headed in large number towards Bangladesh.Rohingyas tried to enter Thailand and Malaysia but could not do so because both the countries had kept an eye on the developments of Myanmar and put its navy on guard.When all the doors were shut on them, they turned towards India.Rohingyas entered into northeast India through various routes. They avoided staying near the Myanmar's borders. Rohingyas spread over a large area across various states. They have their camps in Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

The illegal immigration of Rohingyas into India and their stay here can have serious national security ramifications and poses serious security threats. It impacts the interests of local populations in the areas seeing large-scale influxes of illegal immigrants and also increases the political instability when leaders start mobilizing the perception of the citizens against the migrants.