Former envoy, top lawyers, Amnesty International, India among those figure

Following report by intelligence agencies, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has prepared a list of several suspected organisations and individuals, who are backing and providing assistance to Rohingya immigrants.

The organisations mentioned in the list include Working Group on Alternative Strategies, Crown Newsing,  Community Mobilisation, Choton Das of Bondi Mukti Committee, Kolkata, Md Saleel of Kerala Muslim Culture Centre and Amnesty International, India. The list also named a former Ambassador, top lawyers, civil society members and a professor of a renowned university.

The document accessed by The Pioneer also gives state-wise data of Rohingya immigrants. “There are 1,234 illegal Rohingya immigrants in the national Capital. Of them 163 are untraceable. Demographic details of 894 have been captured”, the document said.

As per the document, there are 6,523 illegal Rohingyas in Jammu and Kashmir. Of them, 6,461 are in Jammu and 62 in Kashmir. There are 264 Rohingyas in Uttar Pradesh, 26 in Assam, 102 in Tamil Nadu, 60 in Karnataka, 16 in Kerala, and one in Maharashtra.

According to the document, five Rohingyas from Kerala have left their base for Hyderabad.  In Tamil Nadu, 94 have secured United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) card. The details of Rohingya immigrants in West Bengal are not available.

Sources said that the State Governments have been directed to keep a close watch on the illegal Rohingya immigrants. “These illegal Rohingya immigrants are required to be deported back to Myanmar post nationality verification through the Ministry of External Affairs. Due to free floating nature of these illegal immigrants, the process of nationality verification and deportation may be affected. Therefore a vigil on their movement is required”, said an official on the condition of anonymity. The Home Ministry has asked all State Governments to identify them strictly as per the Myanmar verification form. The MHA also advised the States to capture Rohingya immigrants’ personal particulars in the new bilingual nationality verification form and got signed by such illegal immigrants and their guardians.

Recently, the intelligence agencies submitted  fresh reports to the Home Ministry suggesting there has been mass movement of Rohingya refugees from India’s north-eastern States to the south, especially Kerala and Hyderabad. Last month as many as 44 FIRs - 42 in Balapur, 2 in Kanchanbag - related to illegal Indian identity proofs sourced by Rohingya immigrants have been registered by the Telangana Police.  The fresh IB report also says that some people from the Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI), a terror organisation active in Bangladesh and Pakistan, were spotted among the Rohingya refugees.

There are about 16,000 UNHCR-certified Rohingya refugees in India. The Government estimate puts the figure of Rohingya refugees living in India beyond 40,000 with maximum concentration in and around Jammu. The Central Government is concerned over Rohingyas’ stay in India for security reasons. In its affidavit to the Supreme Court, the Government had said that some of the Rohingyas with militant background were found to be very active in Jammu, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mewat.

They have been identified as a very serious and potential threat to the internal and national security of India, the Centre told the Supreme Court.