Bengal child protection body moves SC over Rohingyas’ deportation

Kolkata, Sep 20 (IANS) The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) which has strongly opposed the Central government's stand on the deportation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar, on Wednesday said it has moved the Supreme Court over the issue.

The Commission has refused to send back refugee children to the neighbouring country, branding the policy as "inhuman" and "anti-human".

"We have moved the Supreme Court. There is no question of sending the children back," WBCPCR Chairperson Ananya Chakraborti told IANS.

The body has filed a writ petition in the apex court against the Centre's notification to "identify and deport" all Rohingyas from the country.

In a release the Commission stated: "In this situation deporting the Rohingya children and their mothers staying in different shelter homes and correctional homes of Bengal means to throw them into the jaws of death."

Earlier, the chairperson said that the commission had intimated its stand on the issue to the Chief Minister's Office.

She said as many as 24 Rohingya children are present in shelter homes and 20 in prisons with their mothers, adding that the child rights protection body has also refused to share the list with the Centre.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asserted that all Rohingyas are not terrorists even as the Central government stuck to its stand of deporting the embattled community and said some of them were linked to Pakistani terrorist groups.

Banerjee said the Central government had asked the state government to prepare a list of the children (residing in shelter homes and prisons) in the state and share it with them to execute the deportation.