Noor Fatima would prefer jumping into the Yamuna River to being deported to her village in Rakhine province of Myanmar.
The resident of a tiny ghetto called Kanchan Kunj near the polluted river in South Delhi, Fatima, a Rohingya Muslim, says a return to Myanmar would mean death and destruction.
"The Indian government should throw us in the Yamuna instead of sending us back to Myanmar where Rohingya Muslims are still being hacked and burned," says Fatima, who sells vegetables from her hut that is barely bigger than a closet. Her grandmother's sister was slain and her maternal uncle burned to death in the violence that has gripped Rakhine state.
Fatima, a 40-year-old mother of six children, says the migration of Rohingya Muslims is still continuing from troubled Rakhine. She says an uncle and a maternal uncle fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh about six weeks ago.
Kanchan Kunj houses 47 wooden huts on a 1,000-square metre plot belonging to a non-government organisation (NGO) called the Zakat Foundation of India (ZFI). The huts, covered with tarpaulins and set in four linear rows on an incline, are separated by narrow alleyways. Home to around 250 Rohingya refugees, Kunj is one of four settlements housing the Rohingya in Delhi.
A Rohingya woman prepares to fetch water in Kanchan Kunj, one of four settlements housing Rohingya refugees in Delhi. Narendra Kaushik
According to a statement by Indian Deputy Home Minister Kiran Rijuju, there are 40,000 Rohingya living illegally in the country. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued instructions to 29 states to identify and deport all illegal foreign nationals including Rohingya in August this year. Apart from Delhi, Rohingya are settled in Jammu & Kashmir, Mewat in Haryana, and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh.
Rohingya Muslims Mohammad Salimullah and Mohammad Shaqir have challenged the decision of the Indian government in the Supreme Court. In a petition filed on Sept 2, the two men said that the instructions were discriminatory and a violation of Article 14 (Right to Equality) and Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Liberty) of the Indian Constitution.
The petition quotes a recent statement made by Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who said: "The situation (in Rakhine) seems a textbook example of ethnic cleaning."
It also quotes similar views expressed by officials from the UN Security Council, Unicef, Human Rights Watch, the UN Special Rapporteur and the Indian National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on the deteriorating human rights situation in Myanmar.
The two men cite the example of Bangladeshis who found refuge in India after the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, New Delhi's stance toward religious minorities persecuted in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, and Chakma Buddhists and other refugees.
In all such instances, they say, New Delhi has consistently adhered to the principle of "non-refoulement", a fundamental principle of international law that forbids a country receiving asylum seekers from returning them to a country in which they could be in danger of persecution.
The deportation of Rohingya, the petition adds, would be a violation of New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants of 2016.
In a response filed before the Constitutional Court, the Modi government has said India is not a signatory to United Nations Convention of 1951 and the Protocol of 1967, and is well within its rights to decide the issue on considerations of internal security, potential demographic changes, law and order and sharing of national resources.
It claims to have authentic material indicating links between some Rohingya militants and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which has a long and well-documented history of supporting groups that India regards as a threat to its stability.
Delhi maintains that some Rohingya are involved in anti-state activities, mobilisation of funds through hawala money transfers and human trafficking that could destabilise the northeastern corridor bordering on Myanmar. It also fears the Rohingya presence could lead to eruptions of violence against Buddhists in India.
The government has told the Supreme Court that deportation decisions are based on several considerations and taken on a case-by-case basis, while courts are in the business of establishing legal precedent. In other words, it told the court that the subject was strictly within the domain of the executive and court should first address the question of whether the petitioners have legal standing to bring a case.
Two senior members of the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay and former party ideologue KN Govindacharya -- have also filed petitions in the highest court demanding the deportation of the Rohingya.
The Rohingya accuse the Indian media, particularly television news channels, of mounting a campaign against them. "Television reporters interview us and then devote their entire energy and slots to publicising the government perspective," complains Mohammad Haroon, Noor Fatima's husband.
His wife argues against the Indian government's contention that Rohingya militants have links with the ISI. "Have refugees been involved in terrorist activities?" she asks, a helpless look crossing her face. "Where will we go?"
Haroon and Fatima came to India in May 2012 from Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh where they spent seven years. Haroon, who runs a general store in Kanchan Kunj, says he came to India because there was no work available in the Bangladeshi district where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are now gathered.
"We crossed over into Bangladesh in 2005 because the Myanmar military used to force us to work for them for free," he told Asia Focus. "We would clean their camps, work in brick kilns and collect wood for them. They would forcibly take away our chickens, goats and fruit crops and beat us."
Haroon, Salimullah and their friends are greatly impressed by the infrastructure and democratic principles of India. "In Rakhine, there was no drinking water -- we would drink from a pond -- no electricity and no transport. We (Rohingya Muslims, Hindus and Christians in Rakhine) had no right to vote and had to enroll in schools with Buddhist names. Here Muslims have equal rights," says Haroon.
They also dispute the Indian government's claim about the number of Rohingya refugees in the country. "Sixteen thousand Rohingya are registered with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. At the most, the number would add up to 20,000 (after including the ones without refugee cards). No way it can be 40,000," says Salimullah, perched on a wooden bed in his general store.
ZFI administrative officer Naved Khan says his organisation will abide by the central government order but the latter will be responsible if anything untoward happens to the Rohingya after they are deported.
"We gave them space because they are human beings first. We also educated 22 orphans of the 2002 Gujarat riots," Khan adds. He opposes the branding of Rohingya as terrorists.
Salimullah feels there is no security for life, property and honour in Myanmar. "We can only return there if the situation becomes better and we are given all rights," he says.
The Rohingya Muslims, Salimullah says, were issued red and green cards and were forbidden from travelling to Yangon, the capital of Myanmar at the time. They could marry only after obtaining permission from the government.
"'Bengali Muslim' was written on the back of our cards. We were treated as guests, not citizens," says Salimullah, who took a Buddhist name, Moung Soe Lin, so that he could enroll in a school.
Last year the Indian government decided to grant citizenship to all Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists who had migrated from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan over the last five decades.
The decision covers an estimated 200,000 Hindus and Sikhs who migrated in the face of religious persecution in neighbouring countries. India also has about 100,000 Buddhist Chakmas, mainly from Bangladesh, 73,000 Sri Lankan Tamils and 100,000 Tibetans living as refugees in its territory.
