A five-month-old infant born to a Rohingya refugee died in a detention or holding centre in Jammu in July. A viral video shows the police tear gassing a small congested area in the holding centre. Refugee women and children are also seen in the same space. As the explosion occurs, one can hear the shrieks of women and see children running in panic. The Senior Superintendent of Police, Kathua, admitted that tear gas shells were used in an enclosed space which is not ideal but denied that the infant’s death was caused by tear gas. What is important to note is that these people are not prisoners or criminals who are kept in jail-like conditions. The Rohingya of Myanmar are among the most persecuted people in the world.
Six years since they fled
August 25 marked six years since the Myanmar military launched a campaign of mass atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine State. These genocidal attacks, which began in August 2017, caused more than 7,70,000 Rohingya to flee. At least 20,000 of them are in India. In this particular holding centre in Jammu, which was a prison before, more than 250 Rohingya refugees including women and children have been confined there since March 2021. Most of them have UNHCR cards that validate their identity as ‘a refugee seeking safety’.
