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Burmese refugees pitch tents in Vasant Vihar

NEW DELHI: Hundreds of men, women and children from Myanmar have spent the past one week camping on the pavements and by-lanes around the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at Vasant Vihar seeking refugee status. Meanwhile, residents in the area complain that ever since the UNHCR office was established in the area, they have had little peace. 
"We do sympathize with the poor people seeking refugee status, as it is hard for people to live in the country without support. But the UN must work out a system whereby these people are housed temporarily so that they are not on the streets. Ever since the UNHCR office has been established in our area, the peace and quiet has completely vanished from our locality, with people out on the streets at 3am," says A K Seth, head of the homeopathy department at Ganga Ram Hospital. 

The refugees currently camping on the streets of Vasant Vihar belong to the Rohingya community, a predominantly Muslim sect that is being persecuted in Burma. "The Burmese Junta has shot and killed our people on the suspicion that they did not support the military regime. My uncle was killed by them," says Zia Ur Rahman, a refugee who now lives in Muzaffanagar in UP. Many are living in Jammu. Some are in other parts of the country such as Hyderabad. 

"We have been given an Aslyum Seeker card and not a Refugee card by UNHCR. This deprives us of the money and facilities given to refugees. We are living a hand-to-mouth existence. Many of our people are either begging for money in India or working as rag-pickers. If we do not get refugee status, we want the government to send us to another country where we can live as refugees. Many from Afghanistan, Somalia and even Burma have been given refugee status to India and are living in much better conditions than us," said Rahman. Many complain that they have been interviewed 10 or 20 times and yet been denied refugee status. They say they have been denied a life of dignity, with little access to health and education. Men in their seventies and eighties said they begged for a living in Kashmir. 

"Our core mandate is to protect people and ensure that they are not forced to go to a country where their lives are in danger, or arbitrarily detained. An asylum seeker card protects them on both counts. There are different approaches to treating refugees in India. For this group of people, we believe the asylum-seeker status protects their interests," says Nayana Bose, associate external relations officer with UNHCR. 

As for the right to health-care and education, she says this is available for everybody. They can access free education in government schools. The UNHCR is currently in the midst of a dialogue with the Rohingya.
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