Henry Matiek Koung, A Sudani From Nowhere: Shashi Tharoor Highlights Absence Of Refugee Law (Image: Twitter/ShashiTharoor)
The Congress MP and public intellectual Shashi Tharoor once again flagged the need of a legal framework in India to manage refugees and asylum seekers within the country. Mr Tharoor on Thursday highlighted India”s “unusual situation” as the nation stands one among the very few democratic countries around the world, who are deficient of refugee or asylum laws.
Seeking public attention to the matter, Mr Tharoor took his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Tuesday and shared his experience with Henry Matiek Koung, a student from South Sudan, who faces an “unusual problem”.
As the Congress leader explains, the Mr Koung has come all the way from Sudan to India “legally” to pursue his education. But the student got struck in the country after his passport got expired and some political developments at his home nation held him back from the documentation renewal works.
Met with Henry Matiek Koung, a young South Sudanese student with an unusual problem. He came to India legally as a student but became a refugee because of political developments at home. His passport has expired & he fears persecution on return. A case that highlights India’s… pic.twitter.com/Fq2fX9HvFJ
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 3, 2023
Mr Kong”s condition “highlights India’s unusual situation as one of the few democracies in the world without a refugee/asylum law”, noted Mr Tharoor on X. He also ensured a further discussion with the concerned authorities on the matter.
It is not the first time the senior Congress leader displaying his concern over India”s need for a refugee policy.
He introduced a bill – Asylum Bill, 2015 – in the Lok Sabha seeking establishment of an effective system to protect refugees and asylum-seekers by means of a legal framework.
Read the Bill here: Asylum Bill, 2015 By Dr Shashi Tharoor MP
What the Asylum Bill, 2015 says?
- The Bill consolidates various government policies on refugees.
- It incorporates the principles of the Constitution as well as India”s internal commitments and responsibilities.
- It analysed the history and capacity of India in-depth along with the security concerns.
- Supplies clarity and uniformity on the matter of taking asylum seekers as refugees.
- Includes the rights and duties of refugees in India.
- Put and end to all the ambiguities circulating around “refugees”, on observation that such ambiguities are often result in injustice to this highly vulnerable populace.
- Helps the government to manage refugees in a more organised manner.
- Humanitarian and the security interests of the government will be balanced.
- Gives India a recognition in the world for it”s commitment to refugee protection.
- Proposed the establishment of an autonomous National Commission, which will assess and determine claims for asylum in India.
- Puts systems in place such that the State authorities and structures are prepared to respond to any future refugee crisis.
- By legitimizing their existence, the Bill will allow refugees to overcome their past trauma and helps them to move forward.
Asylum Bill, 2015, “will reflect the leading role India has played in sheltering those fleeing persecution”, The Wire quoted the Congress MP in 2015.
“India has a respectable track record of dealing with refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tibet and Sri Lanka in the past but lacks a legal framework for the same. We need a Bill for this”, told Mr Tharoor to the Business Standard in 2016.
“In the absence of a refugee/asylum law as I have introduced in Parliament, our states seem unaware of d [the] legal rights of documented refugees”, he tweeted then.
In the absence of a refugee/asylum law as I have introduced in Parliament, our states seem unaware of d legal rights of documented refugees.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 28, 2016
