West Bengal Child Rights Body Moves SC Against Rohingya Deportation

West Bengal State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBSCPCR) became the second rights body after the apex body National Human Rights Commission to oppose the deportation of Rohingya Muslims.

WBSCPCR has moved the Supreme Court, to become a party in the matter to be heard on October 3 by the bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra saying the entire community cannot be branded as terrorists.

The plea has challenged the notification of the central government asking for identification and deportation of all Rohingyas to Myanmar.

The child rights commission has said that Rohingyas are being systematically tortured and killed and the entire community cannot be branded terrorists.

Even the United Nations has described them as the most persecuted community in the world, it has said.

Earlier, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in its affidavit, had termed the Rohingyas as illegal immigrants and alleged that some of them were part of a sinister design of Pakistan's ISI and terror groups such as the ISIS.

Their presence in the country will pose a serious national security threat, the Centre had said, adding that the fundamental right to settle in any part of the country was available only to citizens and not the Rohingyas.

It also categorically stated that the apex court should not invoke its jurisdiction, as the issue of Rohingyas fell under the exclusive domain of policy decision of the executive.

The affidavit was submitted as a response to the plea filed by Rohingya immigrants Mohammad Salimullah and Mohammad Shaqir, who had claimed that they had taken refuge in India after escaping from Myanmar due to widespread discrimination, violence and bloodshed against the community there.