‘Being a Rohingya is a crime’ laments Mohammed Sami, a refugee living in India’s capital New Delhi. Sami was already hesitant to venture outside of his home, due to the years of violence and harassment his community has experienced in the increasingly hostile environment. But a recent horror, allegedly orchestrated by India’s government, has elevated his fears.
On 8 May, Indian authorities reportedly forced 40 Rohingya refugees to swim for their lives in the sea near Myanmar. The group, which included women and children, had been detained in Delhi before being blindfolded and flown to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. They were transferred to an Indian naval vessel, where they were reportedly given life jackets and forced into the sea. Sami’s cousin was in that boat.
While it is thought they survived the water, the whereabouts of the refugees remain unknown.1
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority from Myanmar who have faced violent persecution. More than one million Rohingya refugees now live in Bangladesh, with another 346,000 spread between Malaysia, India and Thailand.2
Many Rohingya living in India say that since Narendra Modi’s government came to power in 2014, life is even more difficult. Over this time, the leading Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has managed to transform a country founded on the principal of secularism to a nation dominated by Hindu jingoism and anti-Muslim rhetoric.
From being stuffed into ill-maintained and makeshift thatched homes, to being labelled as ‘termites’, ‘infiltrators’ and ‘vermin’, Rohingya in India are often deprived of dignity.
In 2019 the BJP passed the Citizenship Amendment Act which offers Indian citizenship to minorities fleeing persecution in neighbouring countries, but openly excludes Muslims.3
Cleverly leveraging its appeal to Hindus in India, the BJP has been able to stir up rhetoric that villainizes the Rohingya, often resulting in public calls for ‘cleansing India of outsiders’. The UN has reported that many children of Rohingya who have been detained over immigration issues have been separated from their parents and then left forgotten in childcare institutions or detention camps.
India boasts of being home to a sizeable refugee population: Afghans, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Somalis, Sudanese, Tamil Sri Lankans, Tibetans, and Yemenis, as well as Chin and Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. However, India is not a signatory to the Geneva Convention for Refugees and does not have a domestic policy on refugees. This is proving to be dangerous for the thousands of Rohingya, as well as other refugees who live in India.
While refugees might be given asylum as per international protocols, they remain deprived of access to services that other residents enjoy, including bank accounts, education, employment and healthcare.
The danger now facing Rohingya refugees in India is down to the policies of the BJP. The government must be held accountable for its mistreatment, harassment and violence.
- ‘Alarmed by reports of Rohingya cast into the sea...’, UN OHCHR press release, 15 May 2025, a.nin.tl/launches
- ‘Rohingya Refugee Crisis Explained’, USA for UNHCR, 22 August 2024, a.nin.tl/usunhcr
- Helen Regan, Swati Gupta and Omar Khan, ‘India passes controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims’, CNN, 17 December 2019, a.nin.tl/excludes
