In mid-October, after the Supreme Court put on hold the Centre’s plan to deport the Rohingya, security agencies convened a high-level meeting to enhance deployment on the eastern border to stop the refugees from crossing over to India.
A total of 167 vulnerable points were identified along the Bangladesh border, and additional forces deployed to detect and push back the Rohingya.
The Border Security Force, manning the 4096.7-km border, has asked the Union Home Ministry to sanction recruitment of 5,000 more men so as to identify and stop the Rohingya. The BSF said most Rohingya had entered India through three points: South 24 Parganas and Hili in Dakshin Dinajpur of West Bengal and Karimganj in Assam.
A senior official of the Union Home Ministry said: “The border-guarding forces have been asked to supplement human surveillance with technological tools. We have increased the boots on the ground so that no Rohingya can escape to India...; it is difficult to distinguish them from the Bangladeshis.”
Last week, BSF Director-General K.K. Sharma told a press conference that it was difficult to distinguish between the Rohingya and the Bangladeshis as they had similar facial features, and BSF soldiers were not equipped to differentiate between the two on the basis of their dialect. He said that so far, none of the Rohingya apprehended on the border carried arms, ammunition or any objectionable item. This year, the BSF apprehended 87 Rohingya along the Bangladesh border and 76 were “sent back to Bangladesh”.
The Supreme Court is hearing a petition by two Rohingya — Mohammad Shamiullah and Mohammad Shaqir — against the Centre’s plan to deport the illegal immigrants. The next date of hearing is December 5.
40,000 already in
By the Home Ministry’s estimate, there are around 40,000 Rohingya in India, including 5,700 in Jammu. Only 16,000 of them are said to have registered themselves with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Rohingya came to India in large numbers during 2012-13.
On August 9, the Home Ministry asked all the States, through a circular, to identify undocumented immigrants and deport them as per procedure.
