India slammed for 'irresponsible' move to deport refugees back to chaos-ravaged Myanmar

India must stop sending back refugees into danger in Myanmar, activists said on Tuesday, after New Delhi began deporting the first of nearly 7,000 people who have fled the coup-ravaged nation illegally over the border into its northeastern states.

Myanmar has been engulfed in violent chaos since its military coup in 2021, which has left thousands dead and seen entire villages razed - including in the border state of Chin - by an army notorious for its brutality.

Recent territorial gains by ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy rebels have damaged the junta's hold on the country, and for the first time since the coup, raised the prospect of a defeat for a military which has held power for most of the last 50 years.

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As it clings on, the military is fighting back with air strikes - including in the border area with India - and has activated a conscription law to boost its thinning ranks, driving thousands of mainly young people to seek sanctuary outside the country.

Since the coup thousands of civilians, as well as hundreds of defecting Myanmar troops, have fled into the Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, through the open frontier where many share ethnic and familial connections with India-based villages.

But Manipur is experiencing a period of unprecedented violence between ethnic groups, leading politicians to blame the outside influence of those fleeing Myanmar.

In February, India said it would terminate a decades-old visa-free movement policy for those living within 16km either side of the Myanmar border, citing national security concerns and the need to maintain the demographic structure of its northeastern region.

Chief Minister of India's northeastern Manipur state, N Biren Singh, on Friday wrote in a post on X that the "first batch of Myanmar nationals who entered India illegally" were being repatriated via helicopter to a border town in Myanmar and handed over to junta authorities.

Nearly 6,750 Myanmar nationals had been detected and detained as of February in Manipur, Singh has said.

At least 77 refugees were deported between March 8 and March 11, according to a report by Reuters.

Human rights defenders urged India to rethink its policy change.

"It's really disappointing that we're now seeing this refoulement of Myanmar nationals fleeing the coup," said John Quinley III, director of international rights group Fortify Rights, which focuses on Myanmar.

"Refoulement is against international human rights law, regardless of if you've signed the refugee convention," he added.

But Manipur Chief Minister Singh said India had already gone above and beyond its legal commitments.

"Although India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it has given shelter and aid to those fleeing the crisis in Myanmar on humanitarian grounds with a systematic approach," he wrote in his post.

New Delhi has not signed the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, which spells out refugees' rights and states' responsibilities to protect them, nor does it have its own laws protecting refugees.

But returning refugees to Myanmar is especially dangerous now, as the humanitarian situation in Myanmar has grown increasingly perilous while the conscription law puts all men aged 18-35, and women aged 18-27, at risk of being press-ganged into the conflict.

"This is the worst time to send anyone back to Myanmar. It's completely unsafe for the whole civilian population, and particularly if you're trying to resist the coup," Quinley said.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah also announced in February that the 1,643km border between the two countries would be fenced, although it was not clear how the vast, ungovernable area of remote mountain land would be effectively closed off.

Almost 79,000 Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers were living in India as of June last year, according to data from the UNHCR. This includes the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority who largely fled Myanmar in 2017 to escape a military crackdown.

According to Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), there had been a "surge" in refugees from Myanmar to India's bordering Manipur and Mizoram states.

"[This was] due to the fighting between armed groups and the junta, which included indiscriminate air strikes that killed civilians ... the fighting is still ongoing, so civilians will be at risk," she said.

India's northeastern states have a history of insurgencies and ethnic conflicts and in the past year, Manipur has been ravaged by sectarian violence.

The situation reached a boiling point last year between two ethnic groups, the Meiteis and the Kukis.

Since then, several Indian government officials have placed some blame for the violence on India's porous border with Myanmar, attributing the violence to drug lords from Myanmar settling in Manipur, without providing evidence.

Ganguly from HRW said the Manipur government was failing to protect the Kuki minority, which shared lineage with Myanmar's Chin tribe.

"Some of these refugees are being sent back in pursuit of a domestic political agenda, which is irresponsible because it will place civilians at risk if they are returned," she said.

Others have appealed to the government of Narendra Modi to continue its soft approach to the border area by allowing those seeking sanctuary to escape across as Myanmar is submerged by chaos of the junta's making.

"The Indian government really should focus on protecting refugees along the border and providing them with a safe haven," said Fortify Rights' Quinley.

Additional reporting by Reuters

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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