In an important step to identify the illegal Rohingyas immigrants living in Jammu Kashmir, the Union Territory administration seems to have finally initiated the much lingered-on decision to deport the illegal immigrants back to Myanmar. At least 155 illegal immigrant Rohingyas who intruded from Myanmar and were living in Jammu and Kashmir were on Saturday sent to what is termed as ‘holding centre', under section 3(2) e of the Foreigners Act. The immigrants were not holding valid travel documents required under section (3) of the Passports Act.
The exercise of identifying more such immigrants is ongoing and the Jammu and Kashmir administration is collecting biometric and other details of Rohingyas staying in Jammu, officials said.
After sending them to the said centre, their nationality verification will be carried out after which illegal immigrants will likely to be deported.
Some political parties and social organisations particularly in Jammu had been campaigning and complaining the state and the Centre governments to take immediate steps to identify and deport back the Rohingyas and Bangladeshis alleging that their presence is a “conspiracy” and a security threat.
So much so, many Rohingyas immigrants, living illegally in Jammu and Samba districts had even managed to buy land on the outskirts of Jammu city by fraudulently getting Permanent Residence Certificates, Aadhaar cards and Ration cards.
Interestingly, Getting a Permanent Resident Certificate in the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir was a cumbersome process in J&K but the way Rohingyas had managed the PRC has raised questions over the credibility of those at the helm of affairs.
Intelligence agencies have already asked the local authorities to keep a strict vigil on the Rohingyas after some reports published that the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba was trying to exploit them for carrying out terror activities in India and Bangladesh.
The state government had in 2018 admitted in the House that 5,743 Rohingyas were illegally staying in the state. They have entered the state on their own and are staying at various places in the border districts of Jammu and Samba. But due to political reasons, the successive state governments have ignored the settling of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in Jammu.
The Rohingyas are a Bengali-dialect speaking Muslim minority in Myanmar, many of them entered India illegally through Bangladesh and took shelter in Jammu, Samba and other parts of India.
According to an official record, of the total Rohingyas living in the Jammu province, 4,912 have the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cards. There is no information about those living without UNHCR cards.
