On World Refugee Day, this is from The Quint’s archives. Priyali Sur was reporting for The Quint on the ongoing refugee crisis that has threatened a “de-facto collapse of the Schengen system”. She sent us this report from a checkpoint along the Hungary-Serbia border.
On Tuesday, Hungary’s Homeland Security spokesperson, Gyorgy Bakondi, held a press conference to announce the closing of the Hungary-Serbia border to block the entry of ‘illegal migrants’. He gave a count in terms of the nationalities of migrants who had been caught in the past three months. While Syrians dominated that list with 66,896 people, South Asia had a reasonable number – 394 Indian migrants, 3,200 Bangladeshis, 12,927 Pakistanis and 32,900 Afghans.
So, Why Do Afghan Refugees Now Prefer Europe to India?
I have, unfortunately, never met any Indian while in Hungary or Serbia but I did meet Afghan refugees who were very clear about why they chose Europe over India. This, despite the fact that India has a fairly large Afghan refugee population of 10,395, according to the UNHCR in December 2014. The reason the Afghans gave me was very simple – they loved Salman Khan but felt that the Khans and Muslims of Afghanistan are not welcome as refugees in India.
Ironically, this was playing out in Hungary just a few days after the Modi government made the following announcement through a press release:
The central government has decided, on humanitarian considerations, to exempt Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals belonging to minority communities who have entered India on or before December 31, 2014, in respect of their entry and stay in India without proper documents or after the expiry of relevant documents
The minority community doesn’t just include Hindus, but also Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Parsis and Buddhists. It’s true that India, in the past, had an open door policy for Tibetans, Sri Lankans, Nepalese, Somalis and others. But has India treated all its refugees equally?
The Modi government has granted Indian nationality and citizenship to around 4,300 Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan and Afghanistan in one year and plans to do so for almost two lakh others. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has maintained that India is a “natural home for persecuted Hindus” who will be welcome to seek refuge. But what about other refugees such as the Rohingyas or Ahmadis?
India hasn’t signed the 1951 Refugee Convention. Experts and scholars argue both in favour of and against the Convention. Some believe that the absence of any legal framework for refugee protection makes the status of a refugee in India a precarious one – usually at the mercy of the government in power. The ad hoc approach adopted by the Government of India towards refugees is reflected in the fact that most have not been granted uniform rights, privileges and legal status.
Does India Have a Generous Refugee Policy?
Michael Kugelman, South Asia expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center, believes that India has a generous refugee policy.
Given its interest in being seen as a rising and responsible global power, signing the Convention would have made sense. My sense is that India hasn’t signed the 1951 Convention as it would oblige India to do things it may believe it lacks the capacity to do.
India may want to be seen as a haven for Hindus and other vulnerable religious minorities from other countries. Still, there is good reason to question how well India’s own religious minorities are treated.
He noted that climate change may soon bring more Muslim refugees from Bangladesh and other countries to India. But will India be willing to take them? A senior political journalist in India once told me that he would hate to see India become an Israel for Hindus. So are we really headed that way?
Meanwhile, back in Hungary, the Afghans I spoke to were arrested by the police only minutes after. According to the Hungarian government, they can apply for asylum only if they have not come from a safe transit country. But with most coming in from Serbia, that is unlikely.
Since Tuesday, the Hungarian government has accepted only 140 asylum applications while thousands remain stuck across the border. Are tough bureaucratic procedures a tool for governments to discourage migration?
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