What is India’s policy on the Rohingya?

What is India’s policy on the Rohingya?

Subject : Polity

Section: Citizenship

Context: Officially, about 1,200 Rohingya have been identified as among the first batch to have arrived in Delhi in 2012. After they protested outside the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) office in Delhi, they were provided with refugee cards.

• The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), responsible for tracking foreigners and their visas, has been requesting space at a new location for the Rohingya from the Delhi government since 2021. The FRRO is under the administrative control of the MHA.

What is the process of deportation?

• According to the MHA, illegal immigrants are detected, detained and deported under provisions of the Passport Act, 1920 or the Foreigners Act, 1946.
• The powers to identify and deport them have also been delegated to State governments and Union Territories. Once a ‘foreigner’ has been apprehended by the police for staying illegally, without any document, he or she is produced before the local court. If the accused is found guilty, they can be imprisoned for three months to eight years. After completing their sentence, the court orders deportation. The foreign inmates are moved to detention centres till the country of origin verifies and accepts them.

What is India’s stand on refugees?

• India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol. All foreign undocumented nationals are governed as per the provisions of The Foreigners Act, 1946,The Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939,The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and The Citizenship Act, 1955.
• The MHA informed Parliament on April 5 that “foreign nationals who enter into the country without valid travel documents are treated as illegal immigrants.” In 2016, Mr. Rijiju told the Lok Sabha that “there is no national law on refugees at present. Only Standard Operating Procedures are issued by the MHA to deal with foreign nationals in India, who claim to be refugees.”

e-FRRO scheme

• The e-FRRO scheme is aimed at building a centralized, transparent online platform for the foreigners to avail visa related services and to provide Faceless, Cashless and Paperless services to the foreigners with user friendly experience.
• Under the scheme, foreigners would be able to get as many as 27 Visa and Immigration related services in India from the comfort of their place of stay. Using the e-FRRO application, foreigners can apply online on the portal and obtain the service(s) through email/post without appearing in person at the FRO/FRRO office.

Constitutional Provisions

• The Constitution deals with citizenship from Articles 5 to 11 under Part II. However, it contains neither any permanent nor any elaborate provisions in this regard.
• It only identifies the persons who became citizens of India on 26^th January 1950 (i.e. when the Constitution commenced).
• It empowers the Parliament to enact a law to provide for matters relating to citizenship. Accordingly, the Parliament has enacted the Citizenship Act, 1955, which has been recently amended in 2015.