The Kerala government has informed the Supreme Court that two Rohingya refugee families in Myanmar, including two newborn babies, have no links with Islamic State (IS) or ISI.
The district police chief of Wayanad, where they live, is “closely monitoring” them.
The state assured in the Supreme Court that “no anti-national activities” have been detected among them so far.
Kerala has said, ‘So far, no incident of Rohingyas being linked to ISI/IS has been reported in the state.
It also reassured that “no important establishments exist in the vicinity of the places where Rohingya stay at Muttil in Kalpetta border in Wayanad”.
Kerala clarified that in the last five years, no case was registered against illegal Bangladeshi migrants or Rohingya in the state under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956.
It said “no cross-border threat exists in the state”.
Kerala was responding to a petition filed by BJP leader and Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, seeking to identify, detain and deport illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, including the Rohingya. Shri Upadhyay urged that this exercise should be done in a year, and that too throughout the country.
But Kerala said 12 Rohingya refugees, who are members of two families who fled violence in native Myanmar, had UNHCR cards on arrival.
A letter dated November 19 from the Kerala Home Department stated that the UNHCR cards of 11 members of both the families, barring one of the newborns, have been renewed.
Kerala said that due to financial difficulties and the pandemic, members faced trouble in traveling to Chennai for renewal of their cards.
The state said it was continuously monitoring the migrant labor community, who mostly come from West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand, to find any illegal foreigners with forged documents.
It said it has found 70 Bangladeshi nationals, of whom 57 have been deported and proceedings in respect of 13 are pending.
Kerala said that there are 217 Pakistani nationals residing in the state.
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