Context

A Private Member’s Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha proposing the enactment of a Refugee and Asylum law.

Why does India need a Refugee and Asylum law?

•  The principle of non-refoulement: The international legal principle of non-refoulement — the cornerstone of refugee law, which states that no country should send a person to a place where he or she may face persecution.
•  The principle of non-refoulement is clearly affirmed, with no exceptions, though reasons have been specified for exclusion, expulsion, and revocation of refugee status, to respect the Government’s sovereign authority but limit its discretion.
• India is not signatory to Refugee Convention: India has been, and continues to be, a generous host to several persecuted communities, doing more than many countries, but is neither a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, nor does it have a domestic asylum framework.
• The tradition of asylum: It will be in line with India’s millennial traditions of asylum and hospitality to strangers.
• Because India has neither subscribed to international conventions on the topic nor set up a domestic legislative framework to deal with refugees, their problems are dealt with in an ad hoc manner, and like other foreigners they always face the possibility of being deported.
•  It will finally recognise India’s long-standing and continuing commitment to humanitarian and democratic values while dealing with refugees.

Multiple laws

• In the absence of a uniform and comprehensive law to deal with asylum seekers, we lack a clear vision or policy on refugee management.
• We have a cocktail of laws such as:
• the Foreigners Act, 1946,
• the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939,
• the Passports Act (1967),
• the Extradition Act, 1962,
• the Citizenship Act, 1955 and
• the Foreigners Order, 1948 — all of which club all foreign individuals together as “aliens”.

Defining refugee

• Well-founded fear of persecution: The internationally-accepted definition of the term, includes people who have fled their home countries and crossed an international border because of a well-founded fear of persecution in their home countries, on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.
• Who does not qualify as a refugee? This means that people who cross borders in quest of economic betterment, or because they are fleeing poverty, anarchy or environmental disaster, do not qualify as refugees.
• Nor do those who flee from one part of their home country to another because of war, conflict or fear of persecution.

Way forward

• India must enact a National Asylum Law.
• We need a proper framework to make sure that refugees can access basic public services, be able to legally seek jobs and livelihood opportunities for some source of income.
• The absence of such a framework will make the refugees vulnerable to exploitation, especially human trafficking.
• Our judiciary has already shown the way forward on this: in 1996, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the state has to protect all human beings living in India, irrespective of nationality, since they enjoy the rights guaranteed by Articles 14, 20 and 21 of the Constitution to all, not just Indian citizens.
• The enactment and enumeration of refugee rights will reduce our dependence on judge-centric approaches — or even worse, the whims of Home Ministry bureaucrats, police officers and politicians.

Consider the question “In the absence of a uniform and comprehensive law to deal with asylum seekers, we lack a clear vision or policy on refugee management. In the context of this, examine the need for law to deal with asylum seeker and suggest the various aspects the law should cover.” 

Conclusion

The problems of refugees worldwide are problems that demand global solidarity and international cooperation. India, as a pillar of the world community, as a significant pole in the emerging multipolar world, must play its own part, on its own soil as well as on the global stage, in this noble task.

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