JOIN US2,500 Burmese refugees sent back
Around 2,500 Myanmarese refugees were evicted on Tuesday from Sultan Garhi monument area in south Delhi where they had been camping since the past week demanding refugee status.
The more followed a meeting between United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officials and 10 Myanmarese refugee representatives.
Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) members who have been actively involved in the Myanmarese agitation also met chief minister Sheila Dikshit and took up the mattter with her.
“The chief minister said the refugees need to vacate the land, and once that happens she will see what can be done,” said Ravi Prakash, JNUSU general secretary.
According to JNUSU members, the UNHCR in the meeting maintained that the political asylum status given to refugees was sufficient to provide them access to basic healthcare and education facilities in the country.
No facilities
“Despite this status, they are not really being given healthcare or education facilities. Another suspicious thing took place the minute the refugee delegates came out of the meeting. The police took them away without allowing them to meet anybody waiting for them outside.
Ziaur Rahman, who was leading the movement, was missing for at least three hours,” said JNUSU president Sucheta De.
She added the 10 delegates had left their belongings outside before entering the UNHCR office. These included Rehman’s mobile phone.
“The police did not allow them to meet us or let them take their things. How can they act like this? Since Rehman did not have his phone, we could not locate him for three hours. We came to know he was at Vasant Kunj police station and was later dropped at Kashmere Gate bus stand,” said De.
She said that he was not even allowed to meet his friends or family.
JNUSU members said all the refugees were evicted from Sultan Garhi.
“We are sending them back to the states they come from,” said a police official.