Abhijit Iyer Mitra
When Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh labelled Rohingya refugees in India “illegal immigrants” he was patently wrong. The difference between illegal immigrants and refugees is quite simple – choice. An illegal immigrant chooses to cross borders, while refugees have no choice, migrating because of extreme duress in their normal habitat. The question in the legal sense, from the Indian point of view, is different. First, does it have a legal obligation to abide by the UN Refugee Convention to which it is not a member? Second, at what point are its legal obligations to refugees trumped by the need to maintain domestic law and order?
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