REFUGEE PROBLEMS IN NORTH EAST INDIA

North-East India region has been considered as a heaven for settlement of both Indian nationals and foreigners. The lower level of population density compared to the national level, the open international border with Bangladesh, physical and cultural alikeness with certain migrants are the reasons for which the North East region is always considered as the safest zone for taking shelter. Kishor Kumar Kalita writes

- Kishor Kumar Kalita

Though the state of India does not have any specific enactment regarding the rights of ‘Refugee‘ till date, for a couple of decades the country has been suffering from the problem of a displaced persons who occasionally migrate from the neighboring countries. As India, is lacking a well-defined concept and concrete legislation on the subject of- ‘Refugee’, most of the time, particularly after Independence, India has been adopting International notions about the refugee issue. However, as an international political state of affairs keep on changing, it also affects India’s refugee discourse.

The first well-defined concept of international refugee status came in 1921 under the League of Nations from the Commission for Refugees. Observing the large numbers of people fleeing to Eastern Europe after the Second World War, the United Nation 1951 Refugee Convention ‘United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees’ defined “refugee” in its Article 1.A.2. According to this definition, the term “refugee” shall apply to any person who:

(1) Has been considered a refugee under the Arrangements of 12 May 1926 and 30 June 1928 or under the Conventions of 28 October 1933 and 10 February 1938, the Protocol of 14 September 1939 or the Constitution of the International Refugee Organization; Decisions of non-eligibility taken by the International Refugee Organization during the period of its activities shall not prevent the status of refugee being accorded to persons who fulfill the conditions of paragraph 2 of this section;