Dozens of Rohingya refugees, including women and children, have commenced a hunger strike at India’s largest transit camp in Matia, Goalpara district, Assam.
The strike, which began on Monday (9, September), involves over 100 refugees who are demanding their transfer to a detention center in Delhi and eventual resettlement in a third country. They are also requesting to be handed over to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
New Delhi-based Scroll.in news website reported this, citing an official from the Indian Home Ministry.
“The refugees, who have cards issued by the UN refugee agency, have been demanding that they be handed over to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, transferred to a detention center in Delhi, and have sought eventual resettlement in a third country,” unnamed sources told the news outlet.
Assam’s top prisons official, as well as top Home Affairs official, were on the way to the camp to “ascertain the facts.”
About 1.4 million Rohingya have been living in Bangladesh since August 2017, fleeing a severe military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state, while tens of hundreds are living in India.
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