"12 Rohingya Refugees In State, No Anti National Activity Or Association With ISIS Reported So Far": Kerala Tells Supreme Court

The State of Kerala has informed the Supreme Court that at present there are 12 Rohingyan refugees present in the State, comprising 2 families and including 2 newborn babies who are residing at Muttil in Wayanad District.

The State has informed the Court that no anti-national activities by Rohingyas have been reported so far and no instances of Rohingyas being associated with ISI or ISIS has been reported in the State.

It has been submitted that during the period of last 5 years, no case under Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956, has been reported against Rohingyas or illegal Bangladesh immigrants in the state.

The State Government has filed a Statement of case in response to a writ petition filed by BJP Leader and Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay seeking immediate deportation of all illegal immigrants and infiltrators including Bangladeshis and Rohingyas within one year.

Background of the matter

The Writ Petition-Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay v Union of India & Ors-has sought a direction to the Central and state governments to identify, detain and deport all illegal immigrants and infiltrators including Rohingya refugees, direction to government authorities to amend the respective laws to make illegal migration and infiltration, a cognizable non-bailable and non-compoundable offence, direct the Central and state government to declare the making of forged/fabricated PAN Cards, Aadhaar Card and other such documents a non-bailable and non-compoundable offence.

In March 2021 a Bench of justices CJI SA Bobde, AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian had issued notice on the said matter.

Kerala's Statement

The State has submitted that, in 2015, Wayanad Muslim Orphanage authorities (WMO), an NGO, brought the Rohingyan Refugees to Bafaqi Home, Mananthavady, Wayanad. As per the Standard Operating Procedure issued by MHA on "infiltration of Rohihyans into the Country", their Biometric and Biographic details were uploaded in the Government E-Portal except one new baby born in December 2019.

The State has submitted that at the time of the arrival of these Rohingyas in Kerala, they possessed UNHCR Cards. However, renewal of cards of 4 Rohingyans, belonging to one family are pending as they are unable to go to Chennai, due to financial hardships and Covid 19 pandemic situation.

Further, instructions have been given to District Police Chief, Wayanad to maintain a close watch on Rohingyan refugees residing at Muttil. 

With regard to illegal migrants, Kerala Government has submitted that it is taking concrete steps to detect the overstaying foreigners who used forged travel documents or surreptitiously entered in to the country and a Committee has been constituted to detect foreigners who have been illegally overstaying in India since 01.01.2011.

The State is maintaining Strict vigilance against incidents like providing forged Citizenship Certificates and other documents to migrants. Further a constant vigil is being kept by the Intelligence wing for collecting information which could help early detection of illegal immigrants.