Five Rohingyas, who were arrested for illegally entering India and lodged in a prison in Assam, were deported to Myanmar on Thursday, PTI reported.
Assam Additional Director General of Police (Border) Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said they were handed over to Myanmar authorities along the Indo-Myanmar Friendship bridge in Manipur’s Moreh. “They were apprehended about five years ago without any travel document and were booked for violating the Foreigners Act,” Mahanta told PTI. They were lodged in Tezpur Central Jail in Assam, according to ANI.
An unidentified official told The Hindu that the five Rohingyas were from Buthitang area of Myanmar and were suspected to have entered India to escape the violence against their community.
In October, India had deported seven Rohingya men to Myanmar after the Supreme Court refused to interfere in the Centre’s decision to deport them. The men had been lodged in Silchar central prison since 2012 for illegally crossing the border.
In August 2017, India announced that it was planning to deport all 40,000 Rohingya refugees in the country. Myanmar treats Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and does not acknowledge their rights as an official ethnic group. The community has been subjected to violence by the Buddhist majority and the Army in Myanmar.
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