Mr. Rijiju said India had “absorbed maximum number of immigrants” and that “illegal immigrants have to be deported as per law”.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday asserted that “none should lecture India on how to deal with refugees” and “Rohingya were illegal immigrants who need to be deported as per law.”
“We have asked State governments to make a task force and start the process of identifying them wherever they are so that they can be deported,” Mr. Rijiju, the junior minister for Home Affairs, said at a briefing of North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a political platform of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies in the North East.
The junior Home Minister said international organisations have been harsh on the Central government for stating that the Rohingya — a minority Muslim community in Myanmar who are fleeing the country after being caught in violent ethnic clashes — would be deported from India.
Mr. Rijiju said that he would not comment on the legal aspect of the case but maintained that “illegal immigrants have to be deported as per law”.
“India has absorbed maximum number of immigrants and we don’t need any lessons from any organisation,” he said.
The minister stressed that “India has a great democratic tradition and the government of India is not going to throw them out into the sea or shoot them”.
Last month, Mr Rijiju, in response to a Parliament question, had claimed that 14,000 Rohingya were registered with the UNHCR, the UN organ that deals with refugees. But the minister added that “inputs received from different States indicated the number to be over 40,000”.
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