Deported Rohingya Reach Home In Myanmar, Receive Identification Cards

The seven Rohingya men deported by India have reached their homes in Myanmar’s Kyauktaw, the Indian Express has reported. According to the daily, the men have been given identity cards by local authorities through which they can apply for the country’s citizenship under the 1982 Citizenship Act. Myanmar does not recognise Rohingya as its citizens.

Talking to the Indian Express, one of the seven men said that they were treated well by the Myanmar authorities. “They bought us food along the way, there was no problem. We came in a government car,” he said. The men revealed that they had left Myanmar in 2012, before the alleged communal clashes in the region started, with an agent from the Indian state of Mizoram. The agent, one of them said, had promised to find jobs for them in the Middle East.

Before their deportation, a Supreme Court bench headed by new Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, son of former Assam Chief Minister and Congress leader, dismissed left-leaning activist Prashant Bushan’s petition to stop the deportation of the seven Rohingyas.