Rohingya deportation: Will follow legal path, won't use force, says Rijiju

Minister of State (MoS) Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday shunned the reports of the Centre cracking whip over Rohingyas Muslim in regard with their deportation and said that no other nation has accepted refugees as India.

Rijiju said that India will not use force for deportation, rather will follow the legal procedure in the connection.

"No country can accuse India of being intolerant or inhuman in dealing with Rohingyas. Deportation has to be done legally. We are not going to use force to throw out anybody. So allegations of being inhuman are wrong. No other country has accepted more refugees than India," Rijiju said.

Two Rohingya Muslim refugees yesterday urged the Supreme Court to direct the Central government to not deport them to Myanmar.

The two Rohingya Muslim refugees, Mohammad Sallimullah and Mohammad Shakir, who had knocked the doors of the apex court in the regard, today told the court that they would face certain death on being deported to Myanmar.

The two petitioners are residing at Madanpur Khadar.

Earlier, representing Sallimullah and Shakir, advocate Prashant Bhushan asserted that such a move would be unconstitutional as the apex court had repeatedly ruled, as in the case of the Chakma refugees, that it was the cardinal duty of the Union Government to protect refugees, who leave their own country because of persecution at the hands of state authorities.

Bhushan had apprised the court that approximately 40,000 Rohingya Muslims residing in India were registered with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

The Rohingyas fled to India after violence in the Western Rakhine State of Myanmar.