2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(2) indulging in ‘documentary citizenship’. However, the proportion of the Rohingya population opting for this ‘documentary citizenship’ is small compared to the total population of Rohingyas living in India. 10 Rohingyas who acquire Aadhaar cards present a rather complex issue with no easy solution. While being in possession of a fake Aadhaar card is illegal, the larger question to be asked is, are Rohingyas residing in India eligible for the Aadhaar card? As per the criteria laid out for obtaining the Aadhaar card, a resident is defined as a person living in India ‘for a period or periods amounting in all to one hundred and eighty-two days or more in the twelve months immediately preceding the date of application for enrolment’. 11 Consequently, all Rohingyas living in India who have fulfilled the requirements of this residency period should be eligible for the Aadhaar card. However, this seems a distant reality, as Rohingyas are now being categorised as ‘illegal immigrants’ by the government. 12 DENIAL OF LEGAL OPPORTUNITIES TO THE ‘ILLEGAL’ In 2018, in the lower house of the Indian parliament, the Union Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju, stated that Rohingyas living in India do not enjoy the status of refugees and are ‘illegal immigrants’ involved in various illegal acts. 13 In the same year, India deported seven Rohingyas from the detention centre in Assam to Myanmar, attracting criticism from the United Nations. 14 The deportations, however, continued when another Rohingya family of five was deported in 2019. 15 The government’s actions have also been criticised from within the country. Indian lawyers have challenged the deportation of Rohingya on the basis that forcing them to return to Myanmar, where they face a threat to their life, 10 11 12 13 14 15 According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates, there are 18,000 registered Rohingya refugees living in India. In addition, the Indian government gives a figure of 40,000 Rohingyas living in India illegally. Still, a study undertaken by Manirban Calcutta Research Group of 2015 claimed that if non-enumerated refugees and asylum seekers were taken into account, the Rohingya population in India could be around 100,000. Compared to all these three figures of total Rohingya population, the number of Rohingyas procuring Indian identity documents fraudulently is small. See NHRC Notice to the Union Home Ministry over Report Move to Deport Rohingya Immigrants to Their Native Country (Press Release, National Human Rights Commission, India 18 August 2017); UNHCR Seeking Clarification from India over Return of Rohingya (Press Release, UNHCR 4 January 2019); Rohingyas: The Emergence of a Stateless Community (Report, Calcutta Research Group 2015). The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, Law No 18 of 2016 (India) art 2(v). See, eg, Advisory No 24013/29/Misc./2017-CSR.III(i): Identification of Illegal Migrants and Monitoring Thereof (Letter, Ministry of Home Affairs 8 August 2017) <https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/advisoryonillegalmigrant_10092017.PDF> (‘Advisory No 24013/29/Misc./2017-CSR.III(i)’). ‘Not Refugees, Rohingya Involved in Illegal Acts: Kiren Rijiju’, Indian Express (online, 1 August 2018) <https://indianexpress.com/article/india/not-refugees-rohingya-involved-inillegal-acts-kiren-rijiju-5285388/>. ‘India under Fire as it Deports Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar’, BBC News (online, 4 October 2018) <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45743951>. ‘India Deports Second Rohingya Group to Myanmar, More Expulsions Likely’, Reuters (online, 3 January 2019) <https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-rohingya-indiaidUSKCN1OX0FE>. 344