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INDIA NEEDS A REFUGEE AND ASYLUM LAW
What the article is about?
- Talks about the need of refugee and asylum law in India
Syllabus: GS-II International Relations, Effect of Policies & Politics of Countries on India's Interests
Refugees:
- People who have fled their home countries and crossed an international border because of a well-founded fear of persecution in their home countries, on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.
- India currently hosts more than two lakh refugees but lack a clear vision or policy on refugee management.
- India is neither a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention nor does it have a domestic asylum framework.
Instances of refugee issues:
- The Government has expelled to Myanmar two batches of Rohingya refugees in the face of a grave risk of persecution in the country they had fled.
- It has attempted to do the same with Chakmas in Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmarese in Mizoram.
No uniform law in India:
- India has a cocktail of laws such as the Foreigners Act, 1946, the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, the Passports Act (1967), the Extradition Act, 1962, the Citizenship Act, 1955 (including its controversial 2019 amendment) and the Foreigners Order, 1948 — all of which club all foreign individuals together as “aliens”.
- Recently a private member bill was introduced to grants protection to refugees and to give a proper framework of law regarding asylum seekers.
- The right to seek asylum in India would be available to all foreigners irrespective of their nationality, race, religion, or ethnicity, and a National Commission for Asylum would be constituted to receive and decide all such applications.
- The principle of non-refoulment is clearly affirmed, with no exceptions, though reasons have been specified for exclusion, expulsion, and revocation of refugee status, to respect the Government’s sovereign authority but limit its discretion.
- Non-refoulement principle states that no country should send a person to a place where he or she may face persecution
