In its bid to counter the national security challenges posed by Rohingya refugees, the Centre is exploring the possibility of relocating them to third countries which could be willing to take them.
The Government is also in the process of devising a suitable legal template to prevent the illegal Rohingya settlers from getting benefits as available to other citizens of the country through various development and social security schemes.
As an interim measure, the Rohingyas are planned to be shifted to some secure places from the existing camps that are in the vicinity of vital installations.
“For these purposes, data is being gathered like their numbers and location of the camps in various States, measures for devising the legal template to check the Rohingyas from availing benefits of various Government schemes, exploring the roadmap to relocate them from their camps in the vicinity of the vital installations and the identification of the countries which are willing to accept them.” a senior official in the security establishment said.
The Union Home Ministry in coordination with the External Affairs Ministry and the police chiefs of the States and Union Territories are expected to initiate action towards that effect, the official further said.
Over 40,000 Rohingya refugees are settled across the country including in sensitive Jammu and Kashmir and a large number of them are suspected to be radicalised and involved in anti-national activities at the behest of Pakistan’s covert agency—Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and terror affiliates like the Lashkar-e-Tayabba and Jaish-e-Mohammad among others.
The role of Rohingyas in terror activities was highlighted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in probes related to the blasts near the Buddhist shrine in Bodh Gaya in 2013 and 2018.
In a 16-page affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in September 2017, the Centre has also underscored that the Rohingyas pose a serious security threat and are involved in anti-national activities besides having links with terror organisations and ISI.
Due to an already existing large influx of illegal immigrants from the neighbouring countries, the demographic profile of some of the bordering states has already undergone a serious change which is already causing the far-reaching complications in various contexts and is taking its toll and has a direct detrimental effect on the fundamental and basic human rights of country’s own citizens, the Centre has said in its affidavit.
There is an organised influx of illegal immigrants from Myanmar through agents and touts facilitating illegal immigrants Rohingyas into India via Benapole-Haridaspur (West Bengal), Hilli (West Bengal) and Sonamora (Tripura), Kolkata and Guwahati. This situation is seriously harming the national security of the country, it had said.
