UNHRC Report - India - 2011

INDIA £ Indiais notpartyto the195 1 Re fug ee Con ven tio n or its1967 Pr otocolanddoes nothav e a national re fug ee pro tec tio n framework. Howe ver , it cont inues to gra nt asyl um to a lar ge numb er of refu gees fro m neig hbou ring States and res pects UNHCR ’s mand ate for other nati onal s, main ly from Afg hani stan and Mya nmar . Whil e the Gover nment of Indi a deal s diffe rent ly with various refu gee gro ups , in gene ral it respectsthe p rincipleof for h olders o f UNHCR documentati on. F or some time now , Indi a’s concernsabout secu rity have had a more re stric tiv e imp ac t on asy lumspace in the cou ntr y . Mixe d migr atio n flow s hav e further comp lica ted the identification and prot ectio n of refu gees and UNHCR has sig nifican tly modifie d and incr eased its reg istr ation ac tiv itiesto cop e wit h this and pr ovi de thenecessar y sup por t to the Governmen t. In the abs ence of a national lega l and admi nist rative fra mework,UNHCR, based in New Delhi , conducts refu gee status deter mina tion (RS D) for asy lum- seek ers from non-neig hbour ingcountries and Myan mar. UNHCR also hasa pr ese ncein Chenn ai,T amil Na du in the sou th to supp ort the volu ntary repa tria tion of Sri Lank an refu gees . Alth oug h Indi a has a lar ge popul ation of stat eles s peopl e, no accu ra te esti mates of the numb er are ava ila ble. UNHCR is wor kin g to ide ntifyandmap sta tel es s group s. The Gover nment of India’s appr oach to ref ugee issues res ults indifferent stan dards of pro tect ion andassistance amon g ref ugee gro ups . Ti betan s and Sri Lank an refu gees are prot ected and as sis ted by theGovernment,whileUNHCRisdir ect ly involved with gro ups arri ving from othercountrie s (not abl y Afg hani stan and Myan mar) . Hol ders of docu mentatio n prov ided by UNHCRar e ab le to obt aintempo ra ry re sid ence per mi ts fr om the authoriti es. However, the ri se in the number of thesere fug eesand asyl um-seeke rs has not been acco mpan ied by a commensu rat e incr ease in resources, comp elli ng UNHCRto find inno vati ve wa ys to mee t both existi ng andemer gin g pro tec tio n nee ds . Ref ugees and asyl um-s eek ers often live in pover ty , disp ersed in urbanar eas , whe re the y canface vio len ce andexplo ita tion. 202 UNH CR Glo bal Appe al 201 1 Upda te Refugees Afghanistan 9,000 9,000 10,000 10,000 Myanmar 5,000 5,000 7,500 7,500 Various 1,200 1,200 1,300 1,300 Asylum-seekers Afghanistan 2,400 2,400 3,200 3,200 Myanmar 6,500 6,500 8,800 8,800 Various 600 600 800 800 Others of concern China 100,000 0 100,000 0 Sri Lanka 74,000 0 73,000 0 198,700 24,700 204,600 31,600

UNHRC Report - India - 2011

Documents

Transcript of UNHRC Report - India - 2011