About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

7 J. Refugee Stud. 378 (1994)
The Legal Condition of Refugees in India

handle is hein.journals/jrefst7 and id is 386 raw text is: Journal of Refugee Studies Vol. 7, No. 4 1994 SYMPOSIUM ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF REFUGEES The Legal Condition of Refugees in India' B. S. CHIMNI InternationalLegal Studies Division, JawahadalNehru University, New Delhi Introduction In 1992 India was host to nearly 400,000 refugees from eight countries.2 The largest group consisted of 181,000 Sri Lankan Tamils living in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Some 88,000 were living in government assisted camps, while the remaining refugees were dispersed throughout Tamil Nadu, mostly living with friends and relatives. The second largest group was the 100,000 Tibetan refugees who have been living in India for the last three decades. More recent arrivals include an estimated 56,000 refugees from Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), living in camps in the state of Tripura. They are primarily Buddhist Chakmas and other ethnic hill tribe minority groups who fled harassment from Bangladesh security forces and Muslim settlers who had moved into the relatively sparsely populated CHT from other severely crowded regions of Bangladesh. In 1991 about 20,000 ethnic Nepalese refugees from Bhutan fled to India in order to escape discrimination and human rights abuses at the hands of Bhutan's ruling Buddhist Drupka group. Also, at the end of 1992 the UNHCR was assisting 11,000 Afghan refugees in the New Delhi area. Since 1992 the repatriation of Sri Lankan Tamils and Chakma refugees, coupled with the departure of others, has considerably reduced the number of refugees in India.3 'This article is an abridged version of a report written for the International Academy of Comparative Law. 2US Committee for Refugees, World Refugee Survey (1993), p. 89. 3On 24th August, 1994 the Government stated in the Indian Parliament that a total of 232,182 refugees were now residing in India including 101,000 Sri Lankan Tamils, 80,000 Tibetans, 51,000 Chakmas and 182 refugees from Myanmar (The Times ofIndia, 25 August, 1994). These figures do not take into account refugees assisted by UNHCR. C Oxford University Press 1994

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most