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 Bijay Sankar Bora Aug 12, 2018  The publication of the final NRC draft in Assam has once again brought to fore how sensitive the Northeastern states of India are to the problem of illegal migration, and that they consider migration a grave threat to the identity and political rights of the ethnic groups residing in the region. The news of over 40 lakh applicants (out of the total 3.29 crore) being left out of the final draft of NRC spread like wildfire in the region. Contrary to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s high-decibel rhetoric that the NRC update was a ploy of the BJP government in Assam to drive the Bengalis out of the state, indigenous apolitical and political organisations in neighbouring Northeastern states of Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur which share boundaries with Assam, raised the alarm that those left out of the final NRC draft would flock to their states to avoid detection and deportation in Assam. People whose na...

The Economic Times July 04,2018 ET Bureau The Union government has decided to continue with eight umbrella scheme for relief and rehabilitation of migrants and repatriates, including offering assistance for one-time settlement of displaced families from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and displaced Bru persons from Mizoram.  The Union cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its nod to the schemes which will provide relief and rehabilitation assistance to the refugees, displaced persons, civilian victims of terrorist, communal, Naxal violence and crossborder firing and mine/IED blasts on Indian territory and riot victims of various incidents, said the government in an official statement.  The government will have to shell out Rs 3,183 crore for the period 2017-18 to 2019-20 to execute the schemes. The cabinet go-ahead to repatriation of Bru tribe, who were forced to flee from their homes in Mizoram due to ethnic violence in 1997, came a day a...

Dawn Jan 24, 2018 Bangladesh security forces have detained a Rohingya leader during a sweep in a refugee camp, police said on Tuesday, as tension grows over plans to repatriate the displaced Muslims to Myanmar. The Rohingya representative, Mohibullah, was held in Cox’s Bazar district as local authorities broke up a protest against the controversial repatriation deal signed by Bangladesh and Myanmar. He was handed over to Bangladesh’s elite security force and then local police who are still holding him for questioning, Cox’s Bazar police chief Abul Khair said on Tuesday. Two other Rohingya men were also detained for their role in the protests, another officer added. Mohibullah, who goes by one name, has mobilised Rohingya in recent weeks to protest against returning the persecuted Muslims to Myanmar. Bangladesh had been due to start the huge process of repatriating hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Tuesday, after agreeing a two-year timescale wi...

The Economic Times, December 20, 2017 Madhuparna Das KOLKATA: With the Centre tightening the noose around  Rohingyas , the central agencies have been tasked to map all possible entry routes of these migrants to  India  and make maximum arrangements to restrict them. West Bengal  and  Tripura   emerge as the most popular transit points for Rohingyas. The agencies have now been asked to identify Rohingya groups and extract information about the routes, the facilitators and fund raisers. During the course of investigation and interrogation of some arrested Rohingyas in Hyderabad and Delhi, the agencies have got some specific information and zeroed in on their specific and favoured routes. According to reports submitted to MHA, West Bengal has emerged as the preferred transit point for almost all Rohingyas. Tripura comes next. In Bengal, they get political patronage as well. Hili, a border point in North Bengal and Haridaspur, a border po...

The Indian Express, December 20, 2017 PTI, Washington The US has appealed for a dignified and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar, but said that conditions are not conducive enough for such a move. Some 625,000 Rohingya refugees have fled the Rakhine state of Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh in the last six months after the Myanmar army launched a crackdown. “In terms of the repatriation plan, we’d like to see the plan. We’ve heard about it in concept, but one of the things that would be important to be in that plan is the voluntary, safe and dignified return,” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters here. “It (repatriation) has to be voluntary. People have to feel like it’s safe to go home. If they don’t feel like it’s safe to go home, it’s probably not going to be safe to go home. They have to have a dignified return. That means treating the people well as they decide to return home,” she said. Insisting that repatriati...