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India asserts resolve to deport illegal migrants

By Spl Correspondent

NEW DELHI, April 4 - Asserting its resolve to detect, detain and deport illegal migrants, India on Thursday said that the government will continue to take action as may be necessary in implementation of laws of the land, and �as directed by our judiciary�.

The Indian reaction came after UN human rights experts in a statement in Geneva condemned the Union government�s decision to deport three more Rohingya to Myanmar and urged New Delhi to stop such forced deportation, which is prohibited under international law.

Official sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said that interpretations made of the facts of the case, as portrayed in the statement, are misleading and incorrect. The repatriation of illegal immigrants to their country of origin is in accordance with Indian laws. These actions are being taken in response to the instructions of India�s courts.

The three Rohingya to be deported � a father and his children � had been imprisoned since 2013 on charges related to lack of documentation. On January 3, 2019, India separated and forcibly repatriated five other members of their family to Myanmar.

�We are dismayed by the decision of the Indian government to continue forced return of Rohingya to Myanmar, where they face high risk of attacks, reprisals and other forms of persecution because of their ethnic and religious identity,� the UN experts said.

The experts expressed their serious concern with the Indian legal and administrative processes for refugee status determination. �The deportation of Rohingya to Myanmar speaks to a system of refugee status determination that fails to account for the ongoing, credible reports of ethnic and religious minority persecution in that country,� they said.

�We also remain concerned with the systemic use of indefinite detention of Rohingya in India, which is indicative of the unacceptable conditions of discrimination and intolerance they face in the country where they have sought refuge,� the experts said.

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