10 April 2017
The Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi
The Prime Minster of India
South Block, Raisina Hill
New Delhi-110011
Subject: An Appeal to Provide Temporary Protection to Rohingya Living in India
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
The European Rohingya Council (ERC) makes an appeal to you to provide temporary protection to all Rohingya living in India and not to deport them to Myanmar. As you may know, there are around 40, 000 Rohingya, who fled Myanmar’s systematic persecution and took temporary refuge in India.
We are deeply concerned about the plan, reported on 4 April, of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to “identify, arrest and deport” thousands of Rohingya refugees living in India. Further, we are also saddened by the statement made on 7 April by Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industries, threatening Rohingya with violence. The chamber also accused Rohingya with crimes and drugs trafficking despite having no such record.
Although Rohingya have been officially recognized as one of the ethnic communities and citizens of Myanmar by four successive governments after the independent in 1948, the government has eventually adopted policies of statelessness, discrimination and systematic persecution such as rape, mass killings and arrests, mass destructions of homes and worshipping places and arbitrary detention. This decades-long systematic persecution of Rohingya since 1978 has rendered Rohingya to choose no other way than to leave their own countries and to flee into neighboring countries and elsewhere.
Dear Mr. Prime Minister, the Rohingya who are now taking temporary refuge in India have arrived in India after a long risky journey. They came to India with a hope that the people of India will open the arms and provide them and their children a temporary protection. Therefore, we appeal to you and the people of India to show the generosity and provide them temporary protection until it is safe for them to return to Myanmar. We assure you that our people are peace-loving and law-abiding people. We thank you, Mr. Prime Minister.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. H. Kyaw
Chairman of ERC
Email: chairman@theerc.eu
Tel.: +31 652 358 202
http://www.theerc.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Appeal_Prime-Miniter-of-India-_20170409.pdf
