Refugees and various forced migrants are current issues facing India. All over the world, people are leaving their homes to escape natural disasters and cultural and political oppression. Unfortunately, even today, the country struggle to offer them a safe life. The reason being the current refugee policy for each receiving state and society, the identification of refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons. The phenomenon of refugees and the way in which refugees have become a major challenge to the world in the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, with the help of government, are troubling issues.

But who is a refugee? A refugee is a person or group who has forced to leave their country due to political conflict, violence or natural disaster. The refugee is afraid of competition based on race, religion, nationality, political and specific social group. After that, they cannot return home for a long time.

Refugees in India

India has an ancient lifestyle of humanitarian security for refugees and asylum seekers. It followed a liberal refugee policy. However, the absence of concrete rules for refugees can be attribute to India’s unstable scenario in South Asian politics. Also the risk of terrorism which can expose through these means. Even in the absence of a specific law, India has addressed the wishes of refugees who have fled their own countries.

India host about 420 refugees and several 110,000 from Tibet who fled the annexation of China in 1951. Another total of 102,300 Tamil Sri Lankans escaped the fighting, between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan armed forces. About 36,000 Buddhist ethnic Chakmas and Hajongs from present-day Bangladesh fled to Arunachal Pradesh. This happened after the Muslim annexation of their country in 1964.

India has given different remedies to refugees from different countries. Predominant refugee flows from Bangladesh. The Chakmas were not provided with sufficient centers as shown by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). These were repatriated in 1988. Tibetan refugees received much higher medicine in the assessment of various refugee groups. For Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, a respectable refugee willpower was practiced and the principle of non-refoulement was followed.

Climate Refugee: Indian’s reaction:

In India, the current Lok Sabha session drew attention to the issue of climate refugees. At the same time, Bhupender Yadav, the Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, claim that India was organizing itself to deal with refugees from the weather, and storms in the land. Rising sea levels pose a danger to the 36 million people living in India’s coastal areas. For example, farmers from coastal Odisha and West Bengal are migrating as farmland becomes infertile due to pressure from rising sea levels and salinization. At the same time, fishing groups suffer due to regular cyclones and storms to tell the story. In the north, lack of water and erratic rainfall force groups from Himalayan locations to emigrate to the plains. Annual flooding of the Brahmaputra in Assam and Bihar causes widespread loss of life and livelihood.

The goal of immigration is clearly the acquisition of citizenship or nationality. In India, regulations relating to citizenship or nationality are mainly governed by the provisions of the Constitution. Article 1 paragraph 1 letter 2 of the 1951 United Nations Convention defines a “refugee” as “a person persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, club of a particular social organization or political opinion.

Various types of Refugees:

Two foreigners have nicely described refugees. These are:

Temporary residents Tourists and travelers:
Persons in this class come to India for a selected purpose with the prior permission of the Government of India. However, in positive cases, someone in this class may want to grow up to be eligible to be a refugee. If, during their stay in India, the situation in the United States of America of origin involves them risking their lives and freedom.

Illegal economic migrants:
Any foreigner who may have left own country United States of America from a point of origin without the proper approval of the appropriate government, each within the point of origin of the United States of America other than the United States of America of destination, entirely for the purpose of improving his or her pecuniary prospects, is not always a fugitive. After all, there may not be any particulars of persecution or coercion that would compel the person to leave the United States of America from the place of origin.

Although India has been home to a huge number and type of refugees at some point in the past, it has dealt with the issues on a bilateral basis. It starts with a “refugee regime” that usually adapts to given global gadgets without giving proper form to the practices that are used in the form of a separate law. Refugees are undoubtedly “foreigners”.

Legal framework for Refugee in India:

• Article 51 of the Constitution of India:-  This provision states that the country shall endeavor to promote admiration for worldwide regulatory. Also treaty obligations in the dealings of prepared people with each other.
• As with the Citizenship Act 1955, it may be an illegal immigrant.

1. Foreign countries entering India with legitimate travel records, even if one remains in the past.
2. Foreign countries entered India without legitimate routes.

• India is no longer a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and the 1967 UN Refugee Protocol.
• Furthermore, India no longer has any national refugee regulations.
• While regulation and order are subjects of the state, global relations and borders are under the Union’s authority. This has resulted in every center and agency of the state authorities dealing with refugee issues in India.
• In 2011, Union authorities circulated a standard operating procedure to address foreign nationals who claim to be refugees.
• The Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 seeks to offer citizenship to individuals who are protected in India due to spiritual persecution or fear of persecution in their home countries. However, the law best covers Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, couples and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Constitutional Laws for Protection of Refugees:

• The Constitution of India provides basic rights for refugees. Namely one’s own equality (Article 14), one’s own existence and private liberty (Article 21), one’s own security from arbitrary arrest (Article 22), one’s own defense by recognition of criminal convictions (Article 20), freedom of religion (Article 25), which is one’s own the Supreme Court’s method of enforcing fundamental rights (Article 32), is for non-citizens consisting of refugees as well as for citizens.
• Constitutional rights are safeguard by the human rights of refugees for dignified life. The liberal interpretation now acquire by (Article 21) consists of its own interpretation in opposition to solitary confinement. Actual in opposition to violence in custody and suitable for clinical assistance and shelter.
• In the absence of law, the Supreme Court invoke (Article 21) of the Constitution to regulate and justify the lives of refugees in India. In NHRC v. State of Arunachal Pradesh, UNHCR as an international agency began to examine the voluntariness of refugees. Therefore, it is now no longer for the court to remind itself whether the consent has become voluntary or not.
• (Article 21) of the Indian Constitution imposes a positive limitation. Any proposal by the state that deprives a foreigner of his or her existence and private liberty without technique deployed through means of regulation may be inconsistent with this proposal. And such a proposal could absolutely consist of the return of refugees.

Indian Policy for Refugees:

• India bases the remedy of many refugee on political grounds, leading to risky and transfigure home policy. India provides privileges to refugee societies primarily based on bilateral and multilateral political family members. This is with different political views of states and homes. An example of india’s remedy of tibetan refugees arriving in the 1969s and 1970s. It was opposed to tibetan refugees arriving because the 1980s offers an example of india’s discriminatory policies.
• For a number of reasons, India gave Tibetan refugees arriving in the 1960s and 1970s. It was preferential remedy compared to alternative refugee groups living in India. The first Tibetan refugee organization to go to India had a number of requirements that various refugee societies no longer have.
• First, the head of the nation of a previously unbiased country. The Dalai Lama, asked for sanctuary for himself and his people.
• Second, China’s invasion of Tibet impressed members of the Democratic India and Communist China families. It was focused the world’s attention on the plight of the Tibetans.
• Fourth, Tibetan refugees are individuals of a society and subculture who want to resettle in its home territory. They are consider the most adept with a temporary dependence on India.

also read: concept of crime

Conclusion

India plays an important role in handling refugees. As it’s a leader in South Asia, setting an example for other states in the region and hosting one of the largest refugee populations in the world. However, the lack of clear standards for the treatment of refugee groups in India, which leads to violations of international standards for the treatment of refugees. Its policies are discriminatory and unfair, even to members of the same group.

Although the Tibetan refugees who came before the 1980s have received adequate assistance from the Indian government. The assistance to the Tibetan refugees who came after 1980 has declined considerably, forcing them to live in inhumane conditions. These inconsistent policies show that India should adopt basic standards of treatment for refugees living within its borders.

Improving its domestic laws is not enough for India to bring its refugee laws in line with the international community, as it will continue to refuse international aid and tracking of refugee groups. India should reform its refugee policy and accede to the Refugee Convention or its Protocol.