The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that Rohingya refugees
detained in Jammu shall not be deported back to Myanmar without following due
process, PTI reported. The apex court panel – headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde
– proceeded with the ruling while hearing a plea which, aside from requesting
the SC to restrain Centre from deporting said refugees, sought immediate
release for them.

Significantly, the Centre had earlier said that India could
not become a ‘capital’ for illegal immigrants.

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Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who had appeared for the
petitioner during the ruling, argued that children in the Rohingya community
were subjected to abuse, including maiming, sexual exploitation and even killing
in Myanmar by the military. He noted that the latter had failed to follow international
humanitarian law.

In recent years, large numbers of Rohingya refugees have made
the shift from the Rakhine state, located in western Myanmar, to neighbouring
Bangladesh and India, largely due to a heavy crackdown by the military.

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A group of shanties located on the peripheries of Jammu City,
housing several Rohingya refugees, were destroyed in a fire on Monday.

A similar incident of blaze had killed three refugees in a
Rohingya camp in Bangladesh last Friday.