By Pratibha Raju
New Delhi: Making pavements as their homes, over 500 hundred Myanmar
nationals, among them women and children, have camped for the past 12
days near the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
office here, demanding a refugee status.
“Life is not easy for refugees like us, who fled our country… at the
age of 18… I have faced torture, extortion, trauma and starvation,”
Dilwana Begum, who works as a maid in Jammu, told IANS. “We are at least
happy that unlike in our own country or Bangladesh, in India we feel
safe and are not harassed for being Muslims. But the UNHCR is not paying
heed to our plight.”
Since April 9, Begum and over 500 people like her belonging to
Burmese Rohingya community, a Muslim community hounded out from Myanmar
(formerly Burma), have made temporary sheds of polythene sheets by the
rear compound wall of the UNHCR office in B-2 Block of Vasant Vihar in
south Delhi, demanding refugee cards.
“We were issued a asylum seeker card in August 2011 by the UNHCR, but
it deprives us from lot of facilities that a refugee would get. We want
a refugee card. Our children need education, better living conditions
like water to drink and toilets. But we are deprived of this as we don’t
have a refugee card,” said Zia-ul-Rahman, a refugee who left Myanmar
two years ago and now lives in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh.
The refugees say that for the past 12 days, most of them did menial jobs to get food and water.
“We are at their doorsteps seeking help, but the UNHCR has not even
reached us to see how we are managing here with small children and old
people, hope they know the real meaning of human rights,” lamented Abdul
Hafeez, who stays at the camp.
Hafeez speaks very little Hindi, and through an interpreter told
IANS: “I lost my parents four years ago as the Burmese Junta shot them
saying that they did not support the military regime. I had to
discontinue my education. Like other refugees from Burma and countries
like Afghanistan, Somalia, we need a refugee status so that I can
continue my studies.”
Another refugee, Mamoon Rafeeq who works as teacher in Jammu said
that the Rohingyas have been sidelined in Myanmar as they are a Muslim
community.
“Unlike other Myanmarese refugees, Rohingya has been sidelined
because we are Muslims. Other Myanmar refugees who are Christians and
Buddhists are given refugee card,” Rafeeq claimed.
However, the UNHCR officials say that they discussed the issue with
the refugees four to five times, but were not persuaded by their
arguments.
The officials said they will now meet 10 representatives of the community on May 20.
“We don’t use the term Rohingya – we refer to this group as Muslims
from northern Rakhine state. In India, there is no national legal
framework for refugees, and because of this there are different
approaches to different groups of people,” Nayana Bose, associate
external relations officer UNHCR, told IANS.
“We have already registered them as asylum seekers and issued
identity cards. The card is similar to the refugee card as it helps
prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and expulsion,” Bose
said.
“Moreover, we are having an on-going dialogue with this group, and
for their own safety and well-being, we have asked them to go back to
their residential places in India. We have offered to meet their
representatives in a more structured manner, to see how best we can
assist them, as we do with all groups of refugees and asylum seekers,”
Bose added.
Source : http://nvonews.com
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