UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is concerned about India's plans to deport Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, his spokesperson Farhan Haq said.
Guterres, who was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is deeply attached to the cause of refugees.
Haq said on Monday that the UNHCR office would take up the issue with the Indian government. He reminded India of a UN dictum against deporting refugees.
According to the principle, refugees cannot be returned to a place where their life or freedom would be "threatened on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion".
India has not signed the UN convention on refugees.
He said a "concentration camp of Rohingyas has come up" in Jammu and Kashmir and later clarified that it was only a detention camp and not a "concentration camp" like those in Nazi Germany.
Subsequently, a Home Ministry official was quoted as saying that India was in touch with Myanmar and Bangladesh to deport 40,000 Rohingyas illegally in India.
UNHCR office in India has reportedly issued refugee IDs to about 16,500 Rohingyas in India.
(This article was originally published in an arrangement with IANS.)
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