The UNHCR has registered and provides support to over two lakh persons as refugees and asylum seekers. In past, India has accepted and continues to provide asylum to refugees from Tibet, the Former East Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In recent times, majority of the refugees and asylum seekers are the Rohingyas from Myanmar and the Afghan refugees. By the end of 2019, the UNHCR had registered about 27,700 refugees and 12,300 asylum-seekers, 60% of whom were the Myanmar Rohingya refugees and 27% of them were from Afghanistan. Approximately, half of all refugees from Afghanistan (about 2.7 million) and Myanmar (1.1 million) are estimated to be children and many of them came to India.
The above is an excerpt from a handbook intended for lawyers, human rights defenders and other functionaries and includes pertinent information on the rights, procedures and institutional mechanisms that are available for the protection and support of asylum seeking/refugee children.
The guide is written by Mahesh Menon, Assistant Professor of Law at SaiU and Daksha Fellowship.
This guide was originally published in https://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/publication/guide-on-defending-asylum-seeking-refugee-children-in-deprivation-of-liberty-in-india
The full text of the handbook can be downloaded from the above link.
