06/06/2006

Contact: Nicole Mailman or Kavita Shukla
ri@refugeesinternational.org or 202.828.0110

Many of the estimated 1,800 Burmese refugees and asylum seekers in New Delhi, India, are facing an urban nightmare. They are left homeless after sudden evictions, live in over-crowded housing, struggle to earn money for basic survival, encounter verbal and physical harassment on the streets, and are misunderstood by other communities. They stand out because of their physical traits, inability to speak the local language, and religious and cultural practices. Although assistance programs of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) help them meet daily survival needs, the refugees report that for the majority of them UNHCR’s stated aims of providing protection and creating conditions for self-sufficiency are not being fully met. Meanwhile, the perception among some agencies working with the refugees is that many of them are more interested in third country resettlement than trying to benefit from programs being offered to integrate them into Indian society.

The majority of Burmese refugees in Delhi are from the Chin ethnic group of western Burma; others are from Kachin, Rakhine and Burman groups. The predominantly Christian Chin refugees have been fleeing to India for more than a decade citing religious and cultural persecution and human rights violations by the Burmese military regime. Currently there are estimated to be at least 50,000 Burmese in India, largely from the Chin group in the Indian state of Mizoram, and on average 35-45 asylum seekers have been arriving in Delhi per month in 2006.

The Indian government has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, nor does the government have a national refugee law. The government treats the diverse refugee groups in India differently; while it provides protection and support to some refugees, such as those from Sri Lanka, it allows UNHCR to carry out a limited mandate with other refugees, such as the Burmese in Delhi. The government does not permit UNHCR access into Mizoram.

Soon after the 1988 democracy uprising in Burma, the Indian government sympathized with Burmese refugees and set up camps for them in Mizoram and Manipur States. However, as relations improved between India and Burma, the Mizoram camps were closed down in 1995 and fewer than 20 Burmese remain in the Manipur camp. Today the Indian government has many joint trade and investment projects with the Burmese regime. According to an analyst, “India’s relations with Burma are based on its interest in controlling insurgency in northeastern states and curtailing Chinese influence in Burma. Refugees from Burma are tolerated, but the government does not want the refugee situation to become high-profile. UNHCR is not even allowed to meet with senior Government of India officials to discuss the Burmese refugee issue.”

Some refugees make the long journey from Mizoram to Delhi in hopes of getting refugee status and assistance from UNHCR. The Burmese are better able to integrate in Mizoram than Delhi because of religious, cultural and linguistic similarities with the Mizo population. Also, many of the Burmese used to be farmers and have more ways to earn a living in Mizoram than in an urban center like Delhi. The Burmese in Mizoram, however, encounter discrimination and protection problems, which in some instances have led to their refoulement and large scale evictions.

The refugees who travel to Delhi expect to be recognized by UNHCR soon after arrival but often there is a long, excruciating wait. From the time an asylum seeker drops an application for refugee status determination (RSD) process at the UNHCR office to the time the RSD is completed can take up to seven months, or a full year if the application is rejected and needs to go through an appeal procedure. During this period, the asylum seeker is usually dependent on other Burmese, who themselves have very limited resources. Although UNHCR “fast tracks” the RSD of the most vulnerable asylum seekers, a large number still have to wait many months for the process to be completed. Until a couple of years ago, UNHCR had a low acceptance rate for Burmese asylum seekers. In 2005, the agency reviewed old rejected cases and many were subsequently recognized as refugees. Currently the recognition rate for Burmese asylum seekers in Delhi is over 80%. However, refugees claim that many cases rejected around 2002 have yet to be reopened for review. A number of refugees remain confused by aspects of the RSD process and at present only one Indian NGO is offering assistance to Burmese with filling out applications.

Initially Burmese refugees recognized by UNHCR received a monthly subsistence allowance. The allowance has been discontinued to make refugees self-reliant and is now provided to newly recognized refugees and phased out within a year, except for vulnerable cases. UNHCR is re-evaluating cases for assistance twice in a one year cycle before discontinuation. Those refugees whose medical or protection situation warrants it receive subsistence allowance for longer than a year.

Through implementing partners in Delhi, UNHCR provides assistance with job placement, skills training, healthcare, legal matters, and housing, but the refugees still have difficulty achieving self-sufficiency. If refugees recognized by UNHCR make less than the minimum wage for unskilled workers of Rs. 3,166 per month (US $70), they are offered the balance of the amount under a top-off scheme by an implementing partner. While the additional money enables daily survival, it also allows employers to underpay their Burmese workers and provides no incentive for them to raise the workers’ salaries. UNHCR globally is facing a major budget crunch and the resources of the India office have been reduced by 20% for 2006, severely affecting services provided to refugees. Due to financial constraints, the top-off scheme may not continue beyond December 2006.

Refugees recognized by UNHCR in Delhi do not receive a work permit, but only a residential permit. The residential permit has to be renewed every six months at the India government’s Foreigners Registration Office, which has become a burden for the refugees. Additionally, in the absence of a work permit, the refugees can only work in the informal sector, where the majority of the Indian population is employed and there is intense competition for jobs.

The Burmese community in Delhi lives in the western part of the city, which is also inhabited by Indian migrants. The area has limited resources for which there is huge competition and there is not much sympathy or understanding for Burmese refugees. Due to scarcity of funds, many Burmese tend to live together in small houses. Landlords evict refugees at short notice for reasons such as overuse of utilities or the presence of unmarried men and women under the same roof. Burmese widows and vulnerable women, in particular, describe life in Delhi as being difficult and dangerous for them and cite lack of consistent accommodation as a grave problem. Though security problems are common for women in Delhi, many of the refugees believe their harassment is not sufficiently acknowledged by local authorities or UNHCR. While UNHCR’s partner NGOs have attempted to initiate programs to sensitize the local community and police, many more such initiatives are needed, not only in Delhi, but also in Mizoram, where the bulk of the Burmese population in India lives.

A number of refugees and NGOs accuse UNHCR of being distant, difficult to communicate with and unresponsive to requests by the Burmese community. Although UNHCR protection officers go to West Delhi, none of the refugees RI spoke to mentioned having been visited by them. UNHCR has improved protection of vulnerable women by establishing a Women's Protection Clinic, which as of May 2006 had profiled almost half of the total Burmese female refugee population. UNHCR‘s small staff in Delhi devotes just one day for public dealing with refugees or asylum seekers without an appointment. UNHCR also holds open house sessions but they take place irregularly without enough advance notice. There seems to be no system of note-taking and little follow-up from each meeting. Although UNHCR is planning to regularize these meetings, there remains a perception among refugees that UNHCR staff remains inaccessible, and at best they can reach the agency’s partner organizations which are located in the same area as the refugees. Some refugees believe that they should have greater input in UNHCR’s decisions and the agency must increase its rights-based focus.

UNHCR maintains that it is hampered in its public dealings with refugees as they primarily want to focus on third country resettlement and very little dialogue is possible on other issues concerning their daily lives in Delhi. The agency has started processing vulnerable cases for resettlement. If resettlement countries accept cases from Delhi it would free resources for the remaining Burmese. Some analysts say that the Indian government may be reluctant to approve group resettlement because that would attract many more Burmese to Delhi. UNHCR is encouraged to educate the Burmese community on resettlement options and clarify that it is likely that not all the Chin from Delhi will be resettled overseas. The refugees must also realize that resisting assimilation in Delhi will not improve their chances of resettlement; on the contrary, skills and training they pick up in Delhi will be useful for them not only in India, but also if they resettle in a third country or return to Burma.

Refugees International, therefore, recommends that:

The Government of India

• Enact a national refugee law to ensure that all genuine asylum seekers who have fled to India are offered equal protection and support and are not treated differently based on their nationality.
• Permit UNHCR to carry out its mandate fully and access Burmese asylum seekers in Mizoram.
• Allow refugees to renew residential permits every 12-18 months instead of 6 months.
• Extend support and protection to Burmese refugees in India.

• Increase staffing and resources to reduce the length of the RSD process.
• Improve communication with the refugees in Delhi by increasing its presence in West Delhi, allotting more public hours and providing advance notice and minutes of open house sessions.
• Enhance its rights-based focus towards Burmese refugees.
• Partner with Indian NGOs to run programs on community sensitization in Mizoram.
• Arrange for accommodations for the most vulnerable women.

• Provide more funds to UNHCR India office.
• Support initiatives for community sensitization programs by NGOs in Delhi and Mizoram.

• Implement programs in Delhi and Mizoram to increase understanding among local communities about the Burmese and decrease incidents of cultural and religious intolerance.
• Assist Burmese asylum seekers with filling out RSD applications.

• Accept vulnerable cases from Delhi for resettlement.