Arakan News Agency
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday accused the Indian government of forcibly deporting dozens of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh and Myanmar since May 2025 without any legal protection, and arbitrarily detaining hundreds of others, amid reports of beatings and mistreatment.
In a statement, the organization said state governments run by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a campaign to expel Rohingya and Bengali-speaking Muslims, branding them as “illegal immigrants.”
HRW explained that among those deported to Bangladesh were at least 192 refugees registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Authorities also forced 40 others onto a naval vessel near Myanmar’s coast before compelling them to swim ashore.
It added that dozens more fled on their own to Bangladesh to escape the crackdown, while hundreds remain detained in Indian detention centers.
The organization cited testimonies from refugees in Cox’s Bazar camps in Bangladesh, who reported beatings, theft of money and phones, confiscation of UNHCR registration cards, and being forced to record false statements claiming they were “Bengali.”
A Rohingya woman from Assam said Border Security Force officers forced her and her family across the border at gunpoint on May 6, adding that her husband was slapped so hard that he lost hearing when he asked where they should go.
The organization also noted that on the same day Delhi police detained 40 Rohingya, including 13 women, and transported them to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where they were beaten before being dumped near Myanmar’s coast. One survivor said: “They treated us like the worst criminals. An officer told us no one would hold them accountable if they killed us all.”
Other reports confirmed that police beat Rohingya families, including children, in Tripura State as they attempted to leave India by train, before handing them over to border forces for forced deportation.
HRW further revealed that authorities in Jammu destroyed Rohingya shelters and arrested dozens. One woman said police dismissed her official documents and Myanmar nationality papers, labeling her “Bengali,” which forced her to flee to Bangladesh.
The organization called on the Indian government to immediately halt arbitrary arrests and deportations, recognize the Rohingya as refugees, and work with the United Nations to ensure their rights.
UN experts have repeatedly warned of arbitrary detention and mistreatment of refugees in India. An estimated 40,000 Rohingya live in the country, half of them registered with UNHCR.
India’s Supreme Court is scheduled to issue a ruling on September 23 regarding the status of the Rohingya, after refusing in May to halt deportations and dismissing accounts of refugees being abandoned at sea as a “beautifully crafted story.”
Recently, authorities in Assam detained nine Rohingya, including five children, in Cachar district near the Bangladesh border, accusing them of entering the country illegally from Myanmar. Days earlier, another nine Rohingya were caught near the border.
Indian authorities continue to pursue Rohingya refugees and those assisting them, refusing to recognize them as refugees despite their UNHCR cards and labeling them “illegal immigrants,” as India is not a signatory to the Refugee Convention.
More than one million Rohingya have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine State in recent years after the Myanmar military carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing in 2017. The Arakan Army (AA) separatists launched a military campaign to control the state in November 2023, subjecting Rohingya to further violence, displacement, and forced conscription. Most now live in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh, while many continue seeking safer lives in other countries.
