The central government of India has asked state government to detect and deport illegal immigrants, like the Rohingyas, claiming they pose a grave security risk to the country.
According to India’s home ministry, more than 14,000 Rohingyas who registered themselves with the UNHCR, are present in India.
The government claims they are not only a security threat, but also infringe upon the rights of Indian citizens, and that illegal migrants are more vulnerable to being recruited by terrorist organisations, The Times of India reported.
"As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants," India’s deputy Home Minister Kiran Rijiju told Reuters. " They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is illegal migrant will be deported."
India’s Home Ministry said the infiltration by Rohingya migrants from Myanmar into India was an additional impost on the limited resources of the country.
"Due to a variety of reasons, including political and economic turmoil in neighbouring countries, people from such countries often enter India. There are cultural and ethnic similarities, on many occasions, such migration goes unnoticed and they settle in Indian territory," the Ministry of Home Affairs told the states asking them to set up a special task force to identify and deport illegal immigrants.
Despite their claim of being indigenous to Myanmar, the government there considers them illegal immigrants and they are not allowed to take up citizenship in Myanmar.
Hundreds of thousands of them have fled their homes since 2012 when violence against Rohingyas broke out. Thousands of them have fled to Bangladesh and neighbouring India.
Human Rights Watch says the Indian government’s announcement presented a risk of vigilante violence against the Rohingya community in India.
"India was part of the council that authorised a fact-finding mission after tens of thousands of Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar, following a security operation in which hundreds were killed and raped," South Asia director of HRW Meenakshi Ganguly told Al Jazeera.
"So India is aware of the risks of abuse, and India has an international obligation to protect them."
