Speaker:

Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury
Professor, Department of Political Science
Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata

Abstract:

The contemporary world has been witnessing 'mixed and massive flows' of population in different parts of the world - refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless population and undocumented migrants - all moving together for their survival, either for life or for livelihood. In such a situation, it is sometimes difficult to categorise the forcibly displaced or voluntarily migrating people. Under such circumstances, even the refugees and stateless population are deprived their basic right to life and shelter. The policy-makers and statesmen tend to ignore the rights and entitlements of the displaced population.

So far, nearly half a million Rohingyas from Myanmar have taken shelter in Bangladesh since 25 August 2017 due to crackdown by Myanmar army. Taking the earlier Rohingya refugees taking shelter in Bangladesh, the total number of Rohingyas has already exceeded 800,000, thus turning Cox's Bazar and the adjoining areas the site for world’s largest refugee camp. India is also currently home to about 50,000 Rohingya refugees.

Against this backdrop, we shall attempt to look at the current issue of the Rohingyas staying in India, clearly in a situation of precarity, from the perspectives of law and justice. Our main question will be: is this precarity simply because of inadequacies of satisfactory legal framework, or is it due to the geopolitical significance of the region and/or growing securitisation of the question of refugees, migrants and stateless people?

Organisers: Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Patna Centre and Chanakya National Law University, Patna