Myanmar refugees launch hunger strike, seek transfer from Assam detention centre
Several refugees have completed their jail sentences and want the Indian authorities to hand them over to the United Nations refugee agency.
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
Join our WhatsApp Community to receive travel deals, free stays, and special offers!
- Join Now -
More than a hundred Rohingya and Chin refugees from Myanmar, including children and women, launched a hunger strike in Assam’s Matia Transit Camp on Monday, a senior state home department official told Scroll.
The refugees, who have cards issued by the United Nations’ refugee agency, have been demanding that they be handed over to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, transferred to a detention centre in Delhi and have sought eventual resettlement in a third country, persons aware of the development told Scroll.
The camp, located in Assam’s Goalpara district, is the largest detention centre in India.
“Our IG [Inspector General] prisons and home secretary are on the way to the camp to ascertain the facts,” Ravi Kota, the Assam chief secretary, told Scroll.
Scroll contacted Assam’s inspector general of prisons and the home secretary, under whom the transit camp functions, for a comment. The story will be updated if they respond.
About 35 Myanmar citizens who have been detained in the Matia transit camp had submitted a representation to the district administration seeking their “resettlement to any third world country or shifting them to any refugee camp within” India.
The district administration on July 16 forwarded the refugees’ letter to the Assam home department. Scroll has seen the letter.
A person, who is in...
