Alumni Spotlight: Kamdar Writes Article on Indian Refugee Policy
Bansari Kamdar (Pardee ’18) published a recent article exploring the Rohingyas and the Indian Refugee Policy.
Kamdar’s article, entitled “Indian Refugee Policy and the Rohingyas,” was published in The Diplomat on October 4, 2018.
From the text of the article:
The Indian police transported seven Rohingya Muslims to the Indo-Myanmar border for deportation on October 3. The Rohingyas had been convicted under the Foreigner’s Act and detained at Assam’s Silchar detention center since 2012 for illegal entry.
This is the first such instance of deportation after anti-refugee tensions flared in Jammu last year and the Indian administration pushed for the deportation of 40,000 Rohingyas in the Indian Supreme Court.
Indian state governments were also urged by the center to identify the refugees and deport them. However, no such instances had been reported — until now.
Globally considered one of the most persecuted minority groups, the Rohingyas are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group in northern Rakhine who have fled Myanmar in a large-scale exodus since August 2017. More than 700,000 refugees fled to Bangladesh after a military crackdown on Rohingyas last August, following the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s attack on Myanmar’s military posts.
An independent UN fact-finding mission into the treatment of local minority groups, including the Rohingya, has accused Myanmar’s military of “genocidal intent” and involvement in murder, false imprisonment, torture, sexual slavery, and large-scale gang rape.
Despite being neither a signatory of the 1951 UN Convention of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol nor possessing a domestic legal framework for refugees, India has traditionally adhered to the policy of nonrefoulement and been a welcoming host nation.
Bansari Kamdar graduated from the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University in 2018 with an MA in International Relations and International Communication, a Graduate Certificate in Asian Studies, and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She also served as a Communications Assistant for the Global Development Policy (GDP) Center.