It has been almost two months (Since 20 October) when the Burmese refugees in Delhi started a sit-in protest before the UNHCR office in Lodi Road, Delhi, braving arrests and rough handling by the Delhi police by day and the chill of winter by night. However, no one seems to pay them any attention, least of all the UNHCR, which exists to help refugee communities worldwide to cope with the harsh realities of being driven away from their country.

Burmese refugees in Delhi have been complaining about the unhelpful attitude of the UNHCR officials and the lack of transparency and uniformity in the granting of refugee status. There were complaints also about cuts in the Subsistence Allowance (SA) payments being given to the few who have been granted recognition, not to mention the meagerness of the amount granted. The SA, fixed at Rs. 1400 per month per person, is not enough to rent even a single room in any part of Delhi.

The demands of the refugees are: one, granting recognition to the newly arrived refugees, and secondly, facilitation of their resettlement in a third country, that are well within the rights of refugees under international refugee law. It is also within the mandate of the UNHCR to grant them recognition and subsistence allowance. These mandates of the refugee agency are especially important for the Burmese refugees in India since the Indian government does not permit them to take up employment. It is also within the UNHCR mandate to assist the refugees to resettle in a third country given their desire for third country resettlement in view of the conditions obtaining in the host country. What, then, prevents the UNHCR from fulfilling its obligations towards the Burmese refugees?

Is the UNHCR facing financial constraints in fulfilling its obligations? This cannot be true, because that would be an irony since, according a Burmese refugee leader the monthly salary of two international staffers at the UNHCR office in Delhi is more than the amount of monthly subsistence allowance given to Burmese refugees in Delhi. Are the refugees a victim of India’s commitment to improving ties with the military regime in Yangon? Or, are they victims of the whims and fancies of a local UNHCR office, which is not monitored by the central office?

The ability to distinguish and differentiate humanitarian issues from political considerations reflects on the level of political and civilizational maturity. The Government of India (GOI) must dissociate its incremental engagement with the regime in Yangon from how it treats Burmese refugees in India. It must at least facilitate their resettlement in a third country if it cannot commit itself to granting them the option of settling and taking up employment here. The GOI policy towards refugees has been marked by adhocism and lack of uniformity. If Tibetan refugees can be allowed to become economically independent by allowing them to take up economic activities, there is no logic for preventing the extension of such benefits to the Burmese refugees who fled a regime no less brutal than that in China.

The UNHCR, on its part, needs to answer some questions. Woeful stories abound of Burmese refugees being subjected to discourtesy and indifference at the UNHCR office in Delhi. The refugee leaders complain of whimsical denials of refugee status to new arrivals without any transparency or uniformity in the criteria for granting this status; cuts in the meager subsistence allowance given to the few recognized refugees; general apathy or even antipathy of the staff towards the refugees seeking recognition and information on the status of their applications; the inadequacy of the SA amount of Rs. 1400 per month per person to meet the living costs in Delhi and non-facilitation of third country repatriation.

The right to life is a universal human right that every government needs to ensure irrespective of whether they are signatories to the international conventions governing these rights. The UNHCR in Delhi and the Indian government are accused of depriving life opportunities to hundreds of newly arrived Burmese refugees in Delhi. While New Delhi denies Burmese refugees the right to work, UNHCR denies the new arrivals recognition and the assistance due to them as refugees. Grave injustice has been meted out to these refugees who, having been driven out of Myanmar, have come a long way from the Indo-Myanmar border region in Northeast India. The irony is that the UN refugee body, supposed to help refugees wherever they are, is comfortably seated in Delhi while these refugees came long distances to approach the UN agency in the hope of being seen for what they are, refugees, and yet having to face rejection. Would those at the helm of affairs both in the UNHCR and the government of India provide some answers?

Injustice at any level is a threat to peace and harmony and therefore to security. Much like tiny drops of water making the ocean, little insecurities can become serious threats.