New Delhi: CPI(M)'s Youth Wing, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DFYI), has moved the Supreme Court urging judiciary not to deport Rohingya children as it would be a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, as children are being "slaughtered as part of ethnic cleansing in Myanmar".
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra stated that the apex court will hear the matter on October 13.
The petitioner organisation has contended that under Article 32 of the Constitution of India, deportation of the child refugees in Rohingya camps must be safeguarded. "Children arriving in the camps have already endured long and dangerous journeys. Many of them have lost family members in the ethnic violence and have reached the refugee camps, separated and unaccompanied. If the Rohingya children in the refugee camps are deported to Myanmar, a country where in thousands of such children are slaughtered as part of the ethnic cleansing, it will be the violation of Articles 2,6,7,19,20,22,31 and 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, which India ratified in December, 1992," reads the petition.
CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat told News18 that the party's official stand has been to stop the deportation of Rohingyas. "The official stand of the party has been to stop the deportation of helpless Rohingya Muslims on the ground of compassion and humanity. DYFI as a youth organisation has pleaded for the children, but we as an organisation are against the decision to deport them," she said.
The Petition also alleges violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India, highlighting the fact that Tibetans, the Chakmas of Bangladesh, Afghans and Tamils from Sri Lanka have been given refuge in India. There is, therefore, no rationale in discriminating against Rohingya refugees, it contends.
DYFI has claimed that the environment in Myanmar is not conducive for children to stay and that the government should find a way to arrange for their care in India. "Union of India shall find alternate care for the child such as foster care, adoption or Kafalah of Islamic law. Any other action other than this will be a violation of Article 37 of the convention. Article 37 of the Convention ensures that children shall never be subject to torture," submitted DYFI through its petition.
The petitioner has also submitted a list of dates by which the petitioner has shown that Rohingyas came into being in Myanmar from 4th Century and that the current persecution is atrocious.
The government affidavit had claimed that the Rohingyas are nothing but a drain on natural resources, but the petitioner contends that "a child growing up with healthy educational and cultural opportunities is a hope to humanity. This may be the reason why Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore penned, 'every time a child is born, it brings with it the hope That God is not yet Disappointed with man'."
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