Indian police have detained more than 150 Rohingya refugees found living illegally in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir and a process has begun to deport them back to Myanmar, two officials said on Sunday.
Dozens of Rohingya are in a makeshift “holding centre” at Jammu’s Hira Nagar jail after local authorities conducted biometric and other tests on hundreds of people to verify their identities.
“The drive is part of an exercise to trace foreigners living in Jammu without valid documents,” said one of the two officials, who declined to be named as they are not authorized to speak to the media.
“We have started the process of deportation of these refugees,” the official added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in August 2019 and now administers the region from New Delhi.
The Hindu nationalist government regards the Rohingya, who are Muslim, as illegal aliens and a security risk, and has ordered that thousands of them living in scattered settlements be identified and repatriated.
