The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) has filed a writ petition to the Supreme Court against the Centre’s notification to the State governments to deport all Rohingyas from the country. The development comes after the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju stated to the Parliament earlier this month that the Union government has directed the State authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants, including Rohingyas.
“WBCPCR has filed a writ petition to the Supreme Court of India against the notification of the Government of India to identify and deport all the Rohingyas from our country,” stated a release issued by WBCPCR on Wednesday. Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Bandyopadhyay will represent WBCPCR in the case.
Alleging that the Rohingyas are being “systematically tortured and killed in Burma,” WBCPCR pointed out that the United Nations has described them as the “most persecuted community in the world.”
WBCPCR dubbed the Centre’s notification as “not only inhuman but anti-human”. It further stated that, “in this situation, deporting the Rohingya children and their mothers staying in the different shelter-homes and correctional homes of West Bengal means to throw them into the jaws of death.”
Earlier this week, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that the State government has received a communication from the Centre to prepare a list of Rohingyas in the State, including children, and deport them. She has said that the WBCPCR does not agree with this.
