New Delhi: Justice Surya Kant of the Supreme Court has deprecated the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for issuing refugee cards to immigrants in India, saying, “They have opened a showroom here and are issuing certificates,” LiveLaw reported .
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi were hearing the petition of a man from Sudan, who has been residing in India since 2013. He has two children, including a 40-day old infant, and wife – all of whom have been issued refugee cards by the UN agency. He is seeking asylum in Australia and approached the Supreme Court for interim protection.
Appearing for him, senior advocate S Muralidhar said that the petitioner, like many other persons in Delhi holding valid refugee cards, was being treated differently by the Ministry of Human Affairs and the Foreigners’ Registration Office.
To this, Justice Kant, who is next in line to become the Chief Justice of India, said, “They (the UN Agency) have opened a showroom here, they are issuing certificates to… we don’t want to comment on them.”
Muralidhar told the court that the UNHCR refugee cards are issued after proper verification and the process takes several years. “There are documents and forms which show that they give some weightage to this Refugee status,” he said, as quoted by LiveLaw.
Justice Bagchi responded saying India has not ratified the concerned international treaty/convention (Refugee Convention) with respect to refugee rights. “Legal right in municipal law really is not there,” the judge said.
Conceding that he is aware of this, Muralidhar highlighted that in the last two months, there had been a sudden drive under which Africans in Delhi are being randomly picked up.
“This is the real apprehension and fear… we are awaiting asylum status for Australia and suddenly we are told…,” he said.
Justice Bagchi went on to ask why the petitioner did not move to Australia. To this, Muralidhar replied that he wishes to do so, but is seeking some interim protection in the meantime.
Justice Kant, unconvinced, said, “We have to be very very careful about… lakhs and lakhs are sitting here… if somebody makes an effort to…”.
He dismissed Muralidhar’s argument that the National Human Rights Commission had also taken cognizance of the petitioner’s case.
The bench disposed of the petition while giving liberty to the petitioner to seek “any further direction” from the commission.
The Wire has reported regarding a series of raids in the capital city, in which the Delhi police arrested nearly 30 African refugees and sent them to the Lampur detention centre. Most of those detained are from Sudan and Somalia; most of them carried valid UNHCR refugee cards.
While the official reason cited for the arrests was stated as ‘overstaying expired visas’, several refugees have alleged that the crackdown was motivated by racial discrimination.
It must also be noted that in May, while hearing a plea regarding the deportation and living conditions of Rohingya refugees, Supreme Court Justice Dipankar Datta had also said that refugees in India cannot claim reliefs based on UNHCR cards.