The illegalisation of Rohingya refugees in India: a (non)citizenship crisis promoted by law and policy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Detentions and a looming threat of deportations have significantly increased for Rohingya refugees since 2017, when the Indian government drastically changed its protection policy and categorised them as ‘illegal migrants’ under law. The result has been an impetus to the security authorities to proactively detect and monitor with the eventual aim to detain and deport Rohingya refugees to Myanmar. Fuelling such illegalisation process is the Indian authorities’ arbitrary manipulation and contraction of the long-standing hosting of certain ‘non-citizen’ refugees in the country to suit the politics of the day. In addition, the Supreme Court (ostensibly the arbiter of rights for all within India’s territory) recently issued an interim order which effectively approved this Rohingya refugee ‘illegalisation’ position, hardening the perilous illegalisation of the community in India. To interrogate these developments, the present article analyses the growing illegalisation through detention and deportation of Rohingyas in India by contextualising the conception of ‘non-citizenship’ as a legal status and a normative category. The article proposes that the notion of ‘non-citizenship’ must be engaged with in a broader analytical manner than a static illegality based on lack of documents, in legal, judicial and policy discussions around refugee protection in India.