Can’t compare Lankan and Rohingya refugees: India

17 March 2018 08:19 pm

Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India stood on a “different footing” from the Rohingyas who seek shelter from persecution in native Myanmar and any comparison between the two is misconceived, the Indian Government has told the Supreme Court.

According to the Hindu, the Government was responding to comparisons made by the Rohingya in the Supreme Court between their plight and the “relief facilities” given to the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.

The Rohingya have sought the same aid and the benevolence India had shown the Sri Lankan Tamils.

But a six-page government affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on Friday said there was no “comparable parity” between the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and Rohingya.

It explained that India reached out to the Sri Lankan Tamils on the basis of two Indo-Sri Lankan Agreements signed in 1964 and 1979.

India had agreed to repatriate and grant Indian citizenship to 600,000 persons of Indian origin “together with their natural increase by 1981-82.”

The government denied the charge that the Rohingya were met with stun grenades and chilli powder at the Indian border. It said the Border Security Force performed its duties in challenging circumstances.

The Supreme Court cannot direct the government to “ensure that foreigners enter the territory of India,” it said.