New Delhi, Feb. 27: The Centre is formulating a new “refugee law” to deal with the influx of refugees in the country and related security and human rights concerns. The Union home ministry has put on fast track the long-pending demand for a national legislation — the first of its kind — to bring about uniformity in the government’s approach while dealing with refugees and asylum-seekers.
“We are trying to make a law to govern which person should be treated as a refugee and what assistance and treatment he/she will get,” Union home secretary G.K. Pillai told this newspaper. The country’s long and porous borders have made India home to more than three lakh refugees consisting mainly of Tibetans, Afghans, refugees from Burma and Lankan Tamils living in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu.
In the absence of a legal framework to determine the status of refugees, the government has been dealing with refugees on an ad hoc basis. Currently, the grant of “refugee status” is the discretion of the political authorities.
Mr Pillai said that once the refugee law comes into force, India will sign the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees. In 1994, India was elected to the executive committee of the UNHCR.
A draft Cabinet note is under preparation in the home ministry. “It will be readied in one or two months and the matter will be placed before the Cabinet for approval,” a top government official said. Once the Cabinet note is readied by the MHA, it will be circulated to all ministries concerned for their comments.
The inter-ministerial committee set up to examine the drafting of a comprehensive national legislation has submitted its report to the home ministry.
Namrata Biji Ahuja