How Rohingyas were expelled from Assam detention centre, despite their pleas pending in court

In 2020, Mahammad Arfat, a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, was arrested in Assam.

Arfat, who holds a refugee card attested by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was convicted of entering India illegally and sentenced to a year in jail.

Once his jail term was over, he was sent to the Matia transit camp, the largest detention centre in India.

In 2023, his brother, who was then living in Jammu, had moved the Gauhati High Court seeking his release from the camp, according to high court orders accessed by Scroll.

On April 23, the court observed that “the matter was listed on countless occasions and yet has not been able to be resolved by the respondents”. It directed the Union government to file an affidavit by May 14.

“We make it clear that on failure to file such an affidavit, we may be constrained to have the concerned Officer present in the Court to explain the matter,” it said.

Four days ahead of the court’s deadline, however, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that several inmates of the Matia detention centre in Assam, including Rohingya refugees, were “pushed back” into Bangladesh as part of a countrywide “operation” by the Indian government.

As of April 24 this year, there were 103 Rohingya refugees...

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