Indian Law: The Challenge of Recognizing Refugee Rights
Mon, 08/23/2010 - 04:20 — LIG Reporter
Indian law does not define the term ‘refugee’ but interestingly, the World Refugee Survey 2009, conducted by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, revealed that there are nearly 411,000 refugees in India. Most of these refugees fled from their own countries due to the fear of persecution. The largest number of asylum seekers in India, are from Tibet. They constitute over 100, 000 of total number of refugees in India. The second largest group comprises of Sri Lankan Tamils. Further, there are refugees from Myanmar, China, Bhutan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Bangladesh.
However, Indian laws for refugees are actually non existent. As mentioned earlier, the term ‘refugee’ is not even defined under any Indian law. Till date, India has not yet signed the Refugee Convention. There is considerable dispute about the legal status of refugees in India and they are treated like foreigners with no legal rights. Although the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR), an international body which supports the refugees, is an active agency, its role in India is highly restricted. All that it can do in India is to provide aid to refugees from Afghanistan and Somalia, if they are present in the country’s capital but the agency is not allowed to work anywhere else in the country.
Problems Faced by Refugees in India Due to Lack of Legislation
Meenakshi Ganguly, a prominent human rights activist, states that the lack of a proper Indian law is the reason for this. A national legislation pertaining to the issue will serve the purpose.
India has played the role of a generous host to many refugees. For example, the Sri Lankan refugees are given shelters and welcomed in India. They are also provided with food and financial assistance due their close cultural association with the Tamil population. The Tibetans have also been granted land to establish educational institutes and other social programs.
However, many refugees in India face social discrimination because of their place of origin, nationality or other reasons. Many refugees in India face poverty due to job discrimination, which restricts them to doing menial jobs, such as domestic work, construction or labor work. As the legal status of refugees is still a gray area, they are paid very less for the work they do as their legal rights are not acknowledged under any Indian laws. They also face unnecessary legal harassment and arbitrary arrests.
Though two proposed bills were drafted in 1997 and 2006, respectively, the government of India rejected the Bills on the ground of security threats such as external militancy. In the coming years, more attention shall draw the country’s legislators to the growing number of problems faced by refugees in India and surely, there is every possibility that a beneficial legislation will passed that defines the scope of their rights and ensures the country’s safety and sovereignty from external and internal threats.
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The parties in power both at the centre and states for their votebank have cosnciously nto legislated on refugee rules and regualtion unlike in other countries. The policy has been why apply for citizenship when u can becoem citizen automatically by obtaining ratiion card for 1000 rs with the aid and connivance of political party activists.Resultis that inspite of having more then 30 million refugees from two particular countries ther is absolutely no refugee problem and the ministry of home is saved from cumbersoem paperwork and the the government form deciding the complicated issue sof citizenship and the political party is assured of votes from the refugees enmass at the cost of national interest. Infact this is what has led to severee national security problems at all levels besides providing a hot bed for anti national activities. Like all other things the govt sems to be considering legislating so that who evr is left may also obtain direct citizenship in the continuing voter card campagn.
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