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Madhura Chakraborty, Research Assistant in Calcutta Research Group (CRG). Currently involved in research on forced migration with focus on Rohingya Refugees in India and Bangladesh. Her research has focused on secondary materials and primary interviews to assess the situation of Rohingyas in India and Bangladesh vis-à-vis the discourse of securitization in the post 9/11 regime. She is particularly focusing on a comparative analysis of media reports to assess the portrayal of Rohingyas in the mass media of both Bangladesh and India and how that impacts the well being of this stateless refugee community.

Abstract

Draft Paper

Priyanca Mathur Velath, Assistant Professor at the Masters Department of Political Science and Graduate Research Centre, St. Joseph's College, Bangalore. She is assisted by Kriti Chopra, Post Graduate Researcher, St. Joseph’s College. Her work looks at the state of refuge in India with particular focus on international law and how that affects the practice of granting asylum in India. Her primary interviews in the camps and settlements in Hyderabad are the basis of her analysis of the situation of Rohingyas in India.

Sahana Basavapatna, Human Rights Activist and Advocate Supreme Court of India, New Delhi. Her research seeks to locate the rights of Rohingyas – recognized as dejure stateless but refugees in India – in the context of slums, where a large part of those living in Delhi and Mewat are known to live. She intends to work in Jammu and Jaipur as well interviewing Rohingyas in their settlements there. Forced migration studies focusing for instance on the city of Delhi has documented inconsiderable detail of the abysmal living condition of refuges. In themselves, they make for a compelling account of the state of refugees but remain largely descriptive, without explaining why the quality of protection of refugees remains arguably in a limbo and her work tries to bridge this gap.

Sucharita Sengupta, Research Assistant in Calcutta Research Group (CRG). Her background is Political Science and her research interests pertain to Border Studies and Forced migration, Gender, Minority Rights. Her research focuses on the Rohingya refugees as part of the perilous irregular maritime migrants to the shores of South East Asian nations like Thailand and Malaysia. Her work tries to trace the history and context of such drives, reasons that allure them to take to the sea, and also the recent media attention to the phenomenon generating mass awareness of the issue internationally, especially in Bangladesh, and to some extent, India. The recent focus on the plight of the boatpeople on the high seas therefore, shows the need of a comprehensive research and continuous advocacy to keep the issue relevant.

Suchismita Majumder, Researcher affiliated with Calcutta Research group. She has an M.Phil in Sociology. Her study is conducted among 58 Rohingya people among who 38 are men and 20 are women in West Bengal. The study has also covered 10 people (5 Men+5Women) who are claiming themselves as Bangladeshi but the court is treating them as “Rohingya”. All these people (68) are in the Correctional Homes of West Bengal (North Zone). Her work aims to reflect the missing link between the Judiciary, Police Authority, Department of Correctional Administration, UNHCR and the Victims. The absence of protection regime contributes to vulnerability of a group of the victims of forced migration. Finally the paper seeks to come out with some recommendations to deal with the crisis.