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A POWERFUL VOICE FOR LIFESAVING ACTION
FIELD REPORT
www.refugeesinternational.org
The PlighT of Burmese refugees in india
The Burmese reugee population in India is overwhelm-ingly rom the Chin ethnic minority group, with smallerKachin, Arakan, and Burman populations as well. This re-port ocuses mainly on the situation o the Chin, as theymake up the majority o Burmese reugees in the country.Burmese reugees in India live primarily in two places: theNortheast states o Mizoram and, to a lesser extent, Mani-pur, and the capital city o Delhi. Since India does not o-fcially recognize Burmese as reugees, it is difcult to geta frm grasp on how many Burmese live in the country.Estimates or the Northeast, where the reugee populationis predominantly Chin, range rom 50,000 to 100,000.The UN Reugee Agency (UNHCR) has registered between3,000 to 4,000 Burmese living in Delhi, also primarilyChin, and estimates that over 600 Burmese are fndingtheir way to Delhi each month.Chin reugees have been leaving Burma or over our de-cades to escape persistent human rights abuses committedby the Burmese army. Many experts believe that abusesbecame increasingly systematic and serious ater the 1988uprising in Burma, and this date does signal a growth inDecember 9, 2009Contacts:Reugees International
india:
Close The gaP for Burmese refugees
PoliCy reCommendaTions
 
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The US government and other international lead-ers should support the Government of India’s ef-forts to develop and approve domestic refugeelaw to confer legal status and protection to Bur-mese refugees, among others. The Governmentof India should also allow UNHCR to accessBurmese refugee populations throughout thecountry.
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UNHCR should work to refine its assistance pro-grams in India with the active cooperation of Chincommunity-based organizations. Internationaldonors including the U.S., UK, EU, and Australiashould provide additional assistance to UNHCRfor these programs.
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International donors should explore providingresources to Chin community-based organiza-tions and Indian civil society groups to increaseassistance to refugees in Delhi and the North-east. This funding should include resources tosupport capacity building for Chin community-based organizations.
Like Burma’s other neighbors, India hosts a large and growing refugee population,the majority of whom are Chin ethnic minorities. India generally tolerates the pres-ence of Burmese refugees, but does not afford them any legal protection, leavingthem vulnerable to harassment, discrimination, and deportation. While India’s lackof a legal regime for refugees is a major impediment to addressing the needs of Bur-mese refugees, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and international donors need toexplore creative ways to work within the existing framework to provide assistance andincrease protection for this population.
 
www.refugeesinternational.org
the numbers o reugees in India. However, there is asizeable community o Chin reugees in India that haveresided here since the 1970s, and who play an importantrole in helping reugee communities adjust to their newsurroundings.Since 2007, Chin State has aced a widespread amine dueto the fowering o bamboo orests, which occurs every tyyears, and the resulting plagues o rats that eat the bambooruit and any other crops in their path. In combinationwith orced labor, bribery, and the expropriation o crops,livestock and other resources by the Burmese army, theamine has broken the capacity o many amilies to survivein Burma and orced them to leave the country.Current conditions make it clear that there is a need orincreased international humanitarian aid to reach intoChin State, whether rom operations based out o Rangoonor through more support or cross-border assistance man-aged by Chin organizations in Mizoram. Furthermore, thedevastation o the amine has created a need or aid to ad-dress longer-term development needs in Chin State to raisepeople beyond bare subsistence agriculture.India is not a signatory to the 1951 Reugee Convention,nor does it have a domestic legal code to identiy and pro-tect reugees. Although Chin reugees in India have no le-gal status, the Indian government does have an inormalarrangement to allow UNHCR to maintain an oce inDelhi, and to provide limited basic services to reugees liv-ing there. UNHCR is not allowed to operate in the North-east states where the majority o Chin reugees live. UN-HCR has little unding or its operations, and programsthat address health, education, livelihood, and legal issuesor beneciaries in Delhi are not sucient to meet theneeds o the reugee community.
sTrangers in a familiar land
Most Chin reugees enter India across the land border withMizoram State, and this is where the majority o the reu-gee population has settled. Mizoram is one o the mosturbanized states in India, and reugees generally gravitatetowards cities and towns despite coming rom largely agri-cultural backgrounds. The Chin generally share sub-tribalconnections with the Mizo community, and reugees tendto gravitate towards Mizo areas with people that share thesame background. In these cases, language is not a prob-lem and many reugees are able to blend into the localpopulation without much diculty.Many Chin reugees do not conorm to this ideal, however,and easily nd themselves isolated rom the host communitywhere they live. Even in instances when a reugee can usetheir sub-tribal connections to integrate into a Mizo town,the small size o communities makes it easy to identiywho is not a native resident.Ater the war or independence rom India that ended in1987, Mizo society has remained highly insular and suspi-cious o oreigners, including Burmese reugees. TheYoung Mizo Association, a state-wide community organi-zation dedicated to the preservation o Mizo culture, hasconducted purges and pushed back thousands o Burmesereugees across the border, most recently in 2003. Thoughthese tensions ebb and fow, many reugees report eelinga general lack o comort in society.In requent cases, these attitudes towards Chin reugeescan result in job discrimination or minor public harass-ment (this treatment should not be equated to the treat-ment reugees receive in Delhi, discussed below). In someextreme cases, it has prevented reugees rom settling incommunities that have made it known that reugees arenot welcome. Because they have no legal status, reugeesear that they could be subjected to a variety o discrimina-tory actions including expulsion; this ear pervades thecommunity.Chin reugees generally report access to, and air treatmentin, housing, education, and health services. Regardinghousing, reugees report the ability to rent housing at thesame prices as local residents. Though requirements orletters o reerence can be a burden or newly arrived reu-gees, these requirements are no dierent or the Mizocommunity. However, lack o legal protections make iteasy or abuses to occur, and reports o such problemsexist.Reugees generally report routine access to hospitals andclinics and air treatment there as well. However, languagedierences can sometimes be a barrier to eective care andthe ease o service can vary widely on a town-by-town basis.Lack o nancial resources to pay or medicine, transporta-tion to medical acilities, and ollow-up services are report-ed as larger problems.As or education, Chin reugee children who are born inIndia generally have ew diculties in accessing govern-ment-run and private schools as they have proper Indiandocumentation. Chin children born in Burma can havediculties accessing government schools because o docu-mentation requirements, including the presentation o birth certicates. This is not the case or private schools,which are more expensive. Lack o nancial resources isthe main obstacle to proper schooling or the Chin.
 
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Chin reugees in Mizoram ace consistent and chronicproblems with poverty, and cite the lack o income as themain barrier to obtaining proper housing, education, andhealth care. Job discrimination generally prevents mostChin rom nding work outside o menial jobs such asroad construction, domestic work, or arm labor. There arealso sporadic reports o wage discrepancies between Chinand local workers and denial o wages or reugees basedon the lack o legal status. Under-employment appears tobe the biggest challenge, and reugees report that they areonly oered work on days that local employees cannot beound.It is important to note that there is a signicant commu-nity o Chin reugees that have integrated into local Mizosociety and have access to citizenship, government jobs,and occasionally voting rights. This community has beena source o stability and assistance or many new arrivals,although their help is largely contingent on amily andsub-tribe aliations. In general, this community hidestheir Burmese origins and is discreet about their involve-ment with the Chin community, limiting their ability to actas agents o social transormation.Chin reugees in Mizoram receive little to no assistance inmeeting their needs. Reugees International ound evi-dence o numerous mutual assistance organizations thatprovided help in emergency cases, but even these groupsreported insucient unds to be truly eective. There arealso a number o Chin organizations in Mizoram withbroader membership and some access to internationalunding. However, these organizations, while willing towork with the Chin community in Mizoram, are currentlyocused exclusively on providing assistance inside Burma.Many Chin women’s organizations also exist, and are sup-porting a small number o amilies in Mizoram with sti-pends or education and assistance or healthcare.While most Chin reugees in Mizoram have never heard o UNHCR, many have reported that they are aware that someprotection and assistance is available in Delhi, as well asopportunities or resettlement to third countries. In act,Delhi is the only place where reugees can register withUNHCR and receive some limited assistance rom the in-ternational community. This potential access to assistanceand resettlement has ueled greater migration to Delhi inrecent years, although the conditions Chin reugees ndthere are oten ar worse than what they have let inMizoram.
a PreCarious ProTeCTion siTuaTion
Without any ormal recognition as reugees, the Chin inDelhi suer numerous challenges. Because they look di-erent rom the local population, the Chin are easily tar-geted or discrimination as oreigners. The inability o many Chin reugees to communicate in either English orHindi also subjects them to prejudice and daily hardship.Women reugees in particular are vulnerable to extensiveassault and harassment in Delhi. The Government o In-dia should coner legal status and protection to reugees toreduce the vulnerability o Chin and other aected popula-tions to discrimination and abuse.As in Mizoram, Chin reugees nd employment in the in-ormal sector, most oten in restaurants or actories. Wagediscrimination and underemployment are much moreprevalent, however, and are a major source o vulnerabilityor the reugees. Additionally, women complain o harass-ment encountered while taking public transportation toand rom work. Many employers also take advantage o their illegal status and reugees eel powerless to do any-thing i they are harassed.As an urban reugee population, Chin have little choice butto live together in small apartments, and oten several am-ilies inhabit one room. Chin reugees also ace rent dis-crimination, and pay signicantly more or housing thanlocal people. Many reugees are threatened with evictionor minor problems, including complaints rom neighborsregarding minor disturbances and even the cooking o meat in vegetarian neighborhoods. Access to clean drink-ing water is also dicult, and many reugees have becomeill as a result.Sexual harassment by Indian locals against the reugeecommunity is widespread, including incidents o rape.Many women are araid to go out at night in their neigh-borhoods alone. RI has been inormed o multiple caseswhere abuses have been reported to the police and no ac-tion has been taken. As a result, most women preer not toreport cases o sexual harassment or rape. Furthermore,within the Chin community, stigma is attached to womenwho have been abused or raped, which also prevents manyrom coming orward and seeking support or protection.In contrast to Mizoram, access to basic services such aseducation and healthcare are major challenges or the Chinreugee community in Delhi. While access to government-run schooling is similar to Mizoram, there is stricter en-orcement o proper documentation requirements. As inMizoram, the money needed to pay or ees and school uni-orms is much more prohibitive.
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