It’s fears of being deported back to Myanmar that sent an exodus of Rohingya refugees crossing all of India towards Bangladesh. Agartala, India – The police in northeastern Tripura state, India, have apprehended 31 Muslim Rohingya fleeing India’s Hindu nationalists who have undertaken a recent crack-down on these refugee people.
A group of 16 children and six women was detained Tuesday after border officials from the two nations could not agree on what to do with them when they tried to enter Bangladesh but were denied permission.
India considers the Muslim-majority Rohingya illegal aliens and a security threat. It has instructed that tens of thousands of them, who live in scattered settlements and slums around the country, be identified and sent back to Myanmar.
As many as 1,300 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh from India in recent weeks after fearing that they would be sent back to Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
The latest group crossed the barbed-wire fences along the Indian part of the border at Rayermura in West Tripura district. Still, Bangladesh border guards stopped them from entering their territory.
The group had spent the last four days stranded in the “no-man’s land” between India and Bangladesh, which hosts the world’s largest refugee camp of over a million Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar.
According to officials, the arrested Rohingya were produced in a Court of law in Agartala, the capital of Tripura, which placed them in judicial custody for 14 days.
“They were trying to enter into Indian territory from the Bangladesh side, and BSF resisted them from entering,” said Brijesh Kumar, director inspector general of India’s Border Security Force (BSF).
Police official Ajay Kumar Das said a case was registered against them under India’s Passport Act for trying to infiltrate Indian territory illegally.
