By- Anju Mourya
Vasudeva Kutumbakam
Often reduced to numbers and statistics, the refugees and other stateless individuals have been pushed off the same nameless, numerical indices today. They are amongst those who remain unaccounted for as countries around the world gear up to protect their nationals. Effectively left to fend for themselves, the need of the hour is not to turn our attention away from this section of humanity that finds itself without a country to call its own. The solution is not to turn inward but to further display our faith in the Gandhian tenet, “vasudeva kutumbakam” or “the world is our family.”
The creation of the SAARC COVID Fund is one such step the Indian government has taken to generate a transregional response to this pandemic. It would be desirable to extend this faith in collective action and cover those living without nationality who find themselves within the Indian shores(CASI, University of Pennsylvania). This crisis has shown us that while the virus does not discriminate between the people it affects, our response to it does.
The Stateless Afghans and COVID-19
As of 2019 there are over 2,00,000 refugees in India, and amongst them, according to the most recent estimate, almost 11,000 are from Afghanistan. This figure excludes the asylum-seekers and others who are either not registered with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) or remain undocumented. Nearly 74 percent of the Afghan refugees in India are of Sikh or Hindu denomination, while the remaining are either Christian converts or Muslims. The Indian policy vis-à-vis refugees has been of selective acknowledgement. Unlike the Tibetans, or those who have escaped persecution in Sri Lanka, the Indian state has not granted Afghans the status of refugee. In doing so, India would be making a diplomatic comment on the state of affairs of Afghanistan; a stance it cannot afford to take due to vested regional interests. Lodged between conflicting national and international interests, which have little to do with their lived lives, these Afghan refugees are navigating the present times with extreme caution and care.
During the times of this pandemic when we all Indian national’s are literally at home, we are afforded with the ease of knowing that we have a system to fall back on. These refugees, however, have little external support. India is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees (1951) and the accompanying protocols (1967), and therefore, has left it to the UNHCR to take charge of those seeking refuge/asylum in the country. With closed borders refugees/migrants now have no place to go, though UNHCR has requested all the countries to open their borders for selected migrants(by Allowing the non carriers of COVID-19) to come but, during such harsh situations this doesn’t seem happening.
Rohingya and COVID-19
The lockdown imposed to deal with the threat of coronavirus has driven Rohingya refugees in various parts of India(Delhi, Hyderabad, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana) to the verge of starvation.
The Indian government estimates that there are around 40,000 Rohingya in camps across the country, having arrived over the years after fleeing violence and persecution in Myanmar, which denies them citizenship.
Identifying them as illegal aliens and a security risk, the government pledged to identify and deport members of the community who live in small settlements and slums from Jammu and Kashmir to Delhi and has already done so with some groups.
In about six different settlements of about 6,000 Rohingyas in the city Hyderabad, more than COVID-19, the hunger and misery is seen as a bigger threat to their survival. Though various social organisations and NGOs have been trying to rally resources to ensure a supply of rations in the camps, the lockdown has made their lives more difficult as it has deprived them of their meagre sources of income.
According to Dr Mazhar Hussain, director, Confederation of Voluntary Associations (Cova) in Hyderabad, who coordinates with the UN High Commission for Refugees, the threat of a coronavirus outbreak in these camps is ever present as social distancing is impossible for them.
Rohingya’s Connection With Tablighi Jamaat
The Union Home Ministry has asked all states to track down and screen Rohingya Muslim refugees over concerns that they may have come in contact with members of the Islamic missionary group Tablighi Jamaat that has emerged as one of the biggest coronavirus clusters in the country (NDTV).
All state police chiefs have been asked to conduct an intensive exercise to locate the Rohingya refugees as many are missing from their designated camps.
The alert sent out to states and union territories said, “All contacts of Rohingyas need to be screened on priority basis and necessary measures need to be taken,”
The letter sent by Home Ministry to state police chiefs and chief secretaries says, “Rohingyas residing in camps of Hyderabad, Telangana had attended Ijtema at Mewat and then had visited Markaz in Nizamuddin. Also Rohingyas living in Shram Vihar, Shaheen Bagh had also gone for Tabligh activities. They have not returned to their camps.”
Is Social Distancing the privilege and luxury of the citizens alone that refugees and migrants cannot afford, as evidenced by the COVID-19 lockdown worldwide?
Rights Of Stateless
There is a conflict between individual human rights of refugees and their migration status, which makes a case for a more human rights-based approach (HRBA) to the right to health. Therefore, it must be critically appreciated that the human rights of refugees guarantee them an inalienable right to health at all stages of their displacement and migration. It is axiomatic from the above deliberation that there is a link between the right to access healthcare and the right to asylum with an HRBA-driven asylum procedure. Yet, nation-states abuse the connection between individual human rights to healthcare services and the right to social security. Moreover, refugees are often discriminated against in migration and upon arrival due to their migration status, deprivation of access to healthcare services is resorted to by the border check-posts to exclude refugees from their right to seek asylum.
Conclusion
Unlike the Gandhian tenet “Vasudeva Kutumbakam” or the world is our family, the reality is way far from what he meant. Today these sufferers are the most affected ones. Just like their native countries the rest of the world is struggling to give them any place to live. Lucky are those who any how have entered to the willing recipient countries but sadly these are very few.
Though in the times of this hazardous pandemic at least the following measures should be followed:
1) The rights of refugees under international law and constitutional law, in the wake of exceptional times of the COVID-19 emergency, must be protected by the countries of reception;
2) All refugees in destination countries, detention centers, and repatriation facilities must be treated as permanent citizens during COVID-19 pandemic;
3) All refugees must have access to public services like seeking refugee status, socio-economic welfare benefits, healthcare, including mental healthcare, water and energy needs in the host countries.
These measures require unprecedented medical preparedness of the countries of asylum to defeat and to minimize the risk of contagion between border security personnel and refugee applicants.
Daksha 