Over 6000 Rohingyas settled in Jammu, official survey confirms

Sumit Sharma. Updated: 2/23/2019 12:09:05 PM Front Page

CID completes biometrics, personal details capturing exercise

JAMMU: There are over 6000 Rohingyas immigrants putting up at various places in Jammu district, an official survey conducted on the directions of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has confirmed, even as many of them under fear psychosis of their forcible deportation to Rakhine in Myanmar, had allegedly left the Jammu region for Hyderabad and other unknown places.

The details emerged as the Special Branch (SB) of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police completed the process of capturing the biometrics of illegal migrants settled in Jammu, one of the five instructions given to state government in June, last year.

The MHA had asked the state government to take all necessary steps to prevent the entry of illegal migrants into the state. Among other instructions, it had the government to capture the biometrics to ensure unique identification/de-duplication and to prevent impersonation in future, even as it had called for not issuing Aadhar Card and other documents to Rohingya immigrants, which may later help them in claiming to be Indian citizens.

The Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted ethnic minority of Myanmar, have been taking refuge in at least four cities of India since early 1980s even as a majority of them arrived after 2012 to escape violence against them in their home country. Though most of them are registered with the United Nation Commission for Refugees, but their entry into India -and onward to various cities including Jammu -has been illegal.

The exercise of biometric capturing was kick started in the month of November 2018 and was to be completed in the middle of January, this year.

“We have captured the biometric details of the Rohingyas in Jammu and submitted a comprehensive report to the Police Department while another report was submitted to the office of the District Magistrate, Jammu,” a senior police officer informed The News Now.

During the exercise, the data of around 6,000 Rohingyas living in Jammu have been collected, he added.
The exercise on the part of the CID was conducted twice on the directions of the District Magistrate, Jammu who too sought fresh report and would share the same to the Government of India.

“Earlier, CID wing had completed details of the Rohingyas living in the outskirts of Jammu -Bathindi, Narwal Bala, Channi Rama and Talab Tillo, but the same was again kick started on District Magistrate’s directions,” said another senior police officer.

The MHA had asked the state government to identify each of the illegal immigrants and record their personal particulars (name, date of birth, sex, place of birth, father/mother names, address in Myanmar/some other country, nationality, etc.) and got signed by such illegal migrant or their guardian.

Official sources informed The News Now that they have captured all the details in prescribed form issued by MHA.

“The Rohingyas were directed to fill up these forms, covering their personal details and information with regard to their settlement in Jammu. The four-page form circulated among these Rohingyas had sought details like the applicant’s name, parentage, occupation or present address, colour of his/her eyes and hair, other name, and special particulars.

“Applicants were also told to furnish passport-sized photograph, besides details about place of birth, height, national identity card, and address in Myanmar, education, spouse’s current occupation, address and even the school and university where he or she studied, among several others with finger prints,” they told this scribe.

The personal particular forms/identity documents of such Rohingyas/foreigners are to be shared with the Government of Myanmar through MEA for their nationality verification, issue of travel documents and repatriation to Myanmar, it may be mentioned here.

The survey also reported that under intense pressure from several government agencies, political parties and civil society groups, several Rohingya Muslim families have made a quiet departure from Jammu.

“Since December 2017, the government agencies have been depriving them access to electricity and water (which were in any case illegal connections). Responding to pressure from political and religious groups and government agencies, the owners of vacant plots where some of them put up their shanties have been forcibly evicting them,” sources informed.

Besides Jammu, the other cities where Rohingyas have lived are Karnal in Haryana, Delhi and Hyderabad. There are an estimated 40,000 Rohingyas Muslims in different parts of the country.

Pertinently, the home department, in a report tabled in the Assembly last year, had said there were 6,523 Rohingya (over 400 without UNHCR cards) living at 39 places in five districts of J&K.

Of the 1,517 families, 1,483 families are staying in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts alone.

As per the government verified statistics, which came after a massive fire engulfed their shanties at Narwal area wherein four refugees were charred to death in November 2017, there were some 5700 Rohingya Muslims putting up in their small shanties made over vacant plots in different parts of Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts.


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