India Must End Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, and Forced Returns of Rohingya Refugees

ASIA-UPDATES ON MYANMAR ROHINGYA GENOCIDE, 19 May 2025

Fortify Rights - TRANSCEND Media Service

Indian authorities beat, blindfold, handcuff, and forcibly return Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

12 May 2025 – The Government of India should immediately stop arbitrarily arresting, detaining, and forcibly returning Rohingya refugees to Myanmar and uphold all legal obligations to protect them, Fortify Rights said today. Indian authorities have arrested, detained, and forcibly returned scores of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, where they face grave risks of persecution and further detention. Arrests in New Delhi and forced returns to Myanmar began on May 6.

“The Indian government is handing Rohingya refugees to the same forces in Myanmar responsible for the genocide against them,” said Yap Lay Sheng, Human Rights Specialist at Fortify Rights. “India has international legal obligations to protect and uphold the rights of all refugees on its territory and must immediately halt forced returns of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.” 

Fortify Rights interviewed seven individuals, including recently released Rohingya detainees, relatives of detainees, and other witnesses who described mass arrests, detention, and the forced return of at least 40 Rohingya refugees from India to Myanmar.

In one instance, Fortify Rights confirmed that Indian authorities arrested a group of Rohingya refugees in New Delhi on May 6 and forcibly returned at least 40 of them to Myanmar the next day. At the same time, Indian authorities reportedly forcibly returned scores of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh.

Fortify Rights obtained an audio recording of a call between a Rohingya refugee forcibly returned to Myanmar and a relative. On the call, “Sayeed” recounted: We were kept in detention in Mayapuri. They boarded us onto an [Indian] army plane … brought us to a place we don’t know. We were blindfolded and handcuffed. We were taken to the Navy base … They abused and beat us on the [ship], anyone who asked questions [was abused]. They don’t trust us when we said we’re students. … We are now at a place known as [location in Myanmar withheld]. We have been sent here now. Fortify Rights also spoke to detainees and eyewitnesses who witnessed police raids in the New Delhi neighborhoods of Hastsal, Vikaspuri, and Okhla on May 6, 2025. In total, Indian authorities reportedly arrested more than 80 Rohingya refugees from these areas.

“Around 50 police came by van … and they just called our names,” said “Paul,” a Rohingya Christian refugee whose neighbourhood was raided. “They told us, ‘You all must go for biometric verification. … it will only take ten minutes.’”

Paul described witnessing police beat refugees during the arrests, “My older brother was beaten by police with a wooden stick on the neck … just because he was a little slow to board the police van.”

“John,” a self-identified pseudonym for another Rohingya refugee in New Delhi, told Fortify Rights, “Last night [May 9], at around 2.30 a.m., … the police officers were looking for two people. … They took [my neighbor] to a large park near us and beat him a lot … he called [me] and said, ‘Can you come to rescue me?’ … he was crying a lot.”

Indian authorities in New Delhi detained Rohingya refugee women and children for one day before releasing them, while Rohingya men remained in detention, some facing the prospect of being forcibly returned to Myanmar.

One refugee, “Bibi,” said she was detained along with her husband and children, telling Fortify Rights: [M]y family and I were taken by the police. My children and I were released after one day and one night, but my husband was not released. … He managed to send me one message: not to go with the police if they call me in to see him. He said he is being tortured and beaten in custody. The woman told Fortify Rights she was worried about her husband being forcibly returned to Myanmar.

“Harun,” who was arrested alongside his two-year-old child and later released, said: “They made us sit for a very long time in a very small area and the police they didn’t give any food … my baby was crying continuously because he was hungry. I requested food twelve times.”

Other refugees in New Delhi cited fears of ongoing raids, arrests, and forced returns. One Rohingya refugee, 47, originally from Buthidaung Township in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar told Fortify Rights: I am very worried about being detained myself. The police said they will come back. … The Modi government announced [recently] they will deport Rohingya refugees. I have a UNHCR [U.N. Refugee Agency] card. I don’t have anywhere to hide from the police arrest. … If we are sent back to Myanmar we could be killed. We could be arrested and tortured. The Myanmar military committed a genocide against us. India has a long history of abusing Rohingya refugee rights. In 2019, Fortify Rights exposed incidents in which Indian authorities beat and threatened to forcibly return Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, while also pushing dozens into Bangladeshi territory. All of the affected individuals were recognized as refugees by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. In 2023, Fortify Rights documented how Indian authorities beat Rohingya refugees, denied them due process, and, in some instances, detained them indefinitely—sometimes for several years.

India is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and lacks a domestic asylum law, but remains obligated to respect the international customary law principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the forced return of refugees to situations where they are likely to face persecution and other serious human rights abuses.

In practice, Indian officials rely on the Foreigners Act of 1946, which grants sweeping powers to detain and remove any non-citizen deemed a “foreigner.” Section 3(2)(d) of the Act allows the central government to issue orders removing or restraining the presence of foreigners in specific areas. The Citizenship Act of 1955, Section 2(b), defines “illegal migrants” as those who enter without valid documents or overstay visas.

India nonetheless remains bound by the principle of non-refoulement. This principle is further reinforced by India’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), as well as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Article 9 of the ICCPR protects all persons, including non-citizens, from arbitrary arrest or detention. It requires that any deprivation of liberty be lawful, necessary, and subject to judicial review. Detention of refugees must be a last resort, used only after a case-by-case assessment, and alternatives must be considered.

The Indian Constitution also provides relevant safeguards. Article 21 guarantees that “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.” Moreover, Article 22 of the Constitution protects all persons arrested and detained. These protections include the right to know the grounds of arrest and detention, the right to a lawyer, and the right to be presented before a court.

India’s treatment of the Rohingya, particularly mass arrest, indefinite detention, and forcible returns to Myanmar or transfers to Bangladesh without judicial review violates these legal protections, Fortify Rights said today.

Indian authorities should immediately desist from detaining and forcibly returning  Rohingya refugees and instead uphold their rights to protection and dignity.

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