SC asks govt to file status report over conditions in Rohingya refugee camps

NewsBharati    19-Mar-2018
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New Delhi, March 19: The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to file a comprehensive status report giving details of the conditions in Rohingya refugee camps in various states.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, was hearing a plea that said conditions at the camps are unhygienic and what it termed as filthiest. The Rohingyas, who came to India after violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state, are settled in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan.

Earlier, the Centre has told the Supreme Court that Rohingya refugees cannot be equated with Sri Lankan Tamil refugees. The Union Home Ministry said this in an affidavit in the matter of Mohammad Samilullah vs Union of India case on Thursday.

A petitioner demanded the SC to direct the Centre to provide same facilities to the Rohingya refugees that it did to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.

The petition said, the Centre and states like Haryana, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir should be asked to provide better hygienic facilities at these camps. The plea alleged that poor and unhygienic conditions have led to several deaths recently.

In September last year, the Centre had filed an affidavit opposing the petition filed in the Supreme Court. The primary stand of the Centre was that the issue falls within the domain of the Executive and the same cannot be interfered with by the courts.

It was also averred that some of the 40,000-odd Rohingya Muslims residing in India have linkages to Pakistan-based terror outfits and ISIS. Moreover, according to the Centre’s intelligence, the Rohingyas are indulging in human trafficking.

Rohingya Rohingya refugee camp Rohingya Muslims Supreme Court Union Home Ministry status report