Guwahati, July 25:

Brief

– RPF arrests 9 Rohingya refugees at Guwahati Railway station coming from Badarpur

– 15 Rohingya refugees arrested on July 24, 2021

– 9 Rohingya include 6 women and one minor travelling to Jammu on Agartala-Deogarh Express

Full Report

Badarpur Railway Station, a junction in Karimganj district of southern Assam seems to have turned into a transit for Rohingya movement in northeast India after detaining at least 24 Rohingya refugees within 48 hours with connection to the small town in the Barak Valley.

Railway Protection Force (RPF) has arrested nine Rohingya refugees at Guwahati Railway station coming from Badarpur on Sunday while 15 other were arrested at Badarpur Railway Station on July 24, 2021.

The nine Rohingya that included six women and one minor along with an Indian citizen, were travelling to Jammu in northern India on Agartala-Deogarh Express when RPF intercepted at Guwahati Railway Railway Station.

“They’re carrying UNHCR cards which appears to be fake. We’re enquiring about further details,” Guwahati RPF said.

The 15 arrested previously, that included six children and three women detained at Badarpur Railway Station, however, didn’t have any valid documents with them. They were travelling from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh and according to RPF there, they were attempting to travel back to Bangladesh.

UNHCR Card

UNHCR is a card provided by the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees upon registration to asylum seekers and refugees to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country.

According to United Nations, India has only 18,000 UNHRC card holding Rohingyas, a Muslim minority in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar who were displaced after an exodus at its Rakhine State in 2017.

Badarpur town and Karimganj district as transit

Badarpur town and the Karimganj district since the inception of Bangladesh from East Pakistan in 1971 has found itself a transit for illegal Bangladeshi movement due to its location near the ‘Tin Nodi’r Mohna’ (Mouth of Three Rivers) in Bangladesh.

The Barak River and Kushiara River (that eventually flows in Bangladesh) of southern Assam meets with Surma River of Bangladesh at the ‘Tin Nodi’r Mohna’ that provides access to the river route into the neighbouring country.