Rohingya Refugees Go on Hunger Strike Against Indefinite Detention

Over 100 Rohingya Muslims, including women and children, are on a hunger strike in a northeastern India camp protesting indefinite detention. Many refugees, fleeing Myanmar's 2017 military crackdown, hold UNHCR cards but remain detained. They seek UNHCR intervention and resettlement in a third country.

More than 100 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, including women and children, have been on a hunger strike since Monday to protest their indefinite detention at a camp in northeastern India, authorities revealed to Reuters. The 2017 military-led crackdown in Myanmar forced over one million Rohingya refugees to flee to countries like Bangladesh and India, where they face minimal hopes of returning home, citizenship denial, and lack of basic rights.

The hunger strikers, including about 103 Rohingya Muslims and 30 Christian Chin refugees from Myanmar, are reported to possess UNHCR-issued refugee cards, according to a Rohingya contact linked to the Matia Transit Camp in Assam state. The camp serves as India's largest detention centre for undocumented migrants. "Many of them have completed their terms but remain stuck in detention. They are not criminals; they escaped persecution," the source said, highlighting that 36 protesters hold UNHCR cards. "Jail conditions are poor, relatives cannot visit, and they only desire freedom and relocation to a place offering a better life," the individual added.

The protesters are requesting UNHCR intervention for relocation to a third country, having sent multiple letters to the Assam government for aid in recent months. Ravi Kota, Assam's senior bureaucrat, confirmed the receipt of these demands and noted that state authorities have commissioned a report to delve into the legal status and varied court orders detaining these refugees. Reuters couldn't immediately ascertain the length of initial detention orders.

UNHCR's statement highlighted that 676 Rohingya refugees are currently under immigration detention across India, 608 without ongoing court cases. UNHCR emphasized that detaining asylum seekers should be an "exceptional measure of last resort," and expressed readiness to collaborate with New Delhi to resolve the detainees' situation. The Rohingya Human Rights Initiative (R4R) claimed that detainees suffer from inadequate healthcare, water scarcity, and inhumane treatment. R4R chief Sabre Kyaw Min remarked, "Our people fled genocide and persecution, only to be imprisoned in a country where they sought refuge." The Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK also urged New Delhi to free the detainees, calling their detention a "grave injustice."

(With inputs from agencies.)