The Union Home Ministry on Wednesday ruled out reports that it had given directions to provide EWS flats to Rohingya refugees at Bakkarwala in New Delhi. The ministry also directed the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi to ensure that the Rohingyas will continue at the present location at Kanchan Kunj and Madanpur Khadar.
“With respect to news reports in certain sections of the media regarding Rohingya illegal foreigners, it is clarified that Ministry of Home Affairs has not given any directions to provide EWS flats to Rohingya illegal migrants at Bakkarwala in New Delhi. Government of Delhi proposed to shift the Rohingyas to a new location,” the MHA said in a statement.
The ministry further informed that it had already taken up the matter of deportation of illegal foreigners with their country through the Ministry of External Affairs.
According to an estimate of the Home Ministry, around 40,000 Rohingya migrants live in different parts of the country, including Delhi.
The MHA said as per law illegal foreigners are to be kept in the detention centre till their deportation. “The Government of Delhi has not declared the present location as a detention centre. They have been directed to do the same immediately,” it said.
Earlier, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said that Rohingya Refugees will be shifted to apartments in Bakkarwala in outer Delhi and will also be provided basic amenities and police protection.
"India has always welcomed those who have sought refuge in the country. In a landmark decision all Rohingya Refugees will be shifted to EWS flats in Bakkarwala area of Delhi. They will be provided basic amenities, UNHCR IDs & round-the-clock Delhi Police protection," the minister said in a tweet which drew sharp reaction from a section of the right wing groups.
"We are shocked to see a statement of the Union Minister for Urban Development Hardeep Puri, terming the Rohingyas as refugees and allotting to them the EWS flats in Bakkarwala, Delhi. We might remind him that the statement made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament on 10.12.2020 declaring that Rohingyas will never be accepted in India (Rohingya ko kabhi bhi sweekar nahi kiya jaega)," the Vishwa Hindu Parishad said in a statement.
VHP president Alok Kumar said Rohingyas are not refugees but infiltrators. “The fact that the Hindu refugees from Pakistan continue to live in abysmal sub-human conditions in Majnu-ka-Tila area of Delhi makes the bounty proposed to be conferred on the Rohingyas all the more deplorable," he said.
With PTI inputs
