No place to go, Rohingyas seek refugee status in India

Priyanka in Delhi

Living in tattered tents in Delhi, Myanmarese refugees from the Rohingyas community have been demanding refugee status in India, as they seek jobs and education for their children. Priyanka reports
A group of 2,500 Myanmarese refugees were on Tuesday chased out of a barren land near the Sultan Garhi Dargah in South Delhi.



The group belonging to the Rohingyas community, an ethnic minority in northern Myanmar who had been camping near the dargah for a week, was driven out by the police. They now have scattered across the city, mainly near the Old Delhi railway station, Kashmeri Gate and Ajmeri Gate.
"We had a meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and they asked us to go back to our country. They said they cannot do anything for us," one of the refugees, Masood Mohammad said.
Meanwhile, at a makeshift refugee camp near Pir Baba, women lay under tattered tents, or, as in most cases, under bed sheets held up by four bamboo sticks, an unlikely respite from the summer heat in the capital. Young children and men roamed around aimlessly.