India to expel 40,000 Rohingya Muslims

India to expel 40,000 Rohingya Muslims

India to deport tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims it says are living in the country illegally.

A government spokesman said on Friday that New Delhi was in talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar about its plan to deport around 40,000 Rohingya Muslims.

“These things are being discussed at [the] diplomatic level with both Bangladesh and Myanmar,” Interior Ministry spokesman K.S. Dhatwalia said. “More clarity will emerge at an appropriate time.”

The Indian government says only around 14,000 of the Rohingya Muslims living in the country are registered with the United Nations (UN)’s refugee agency and that the rest are considered illegal and liable to be deployed.

Reacting to the announcement, the Indian office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it was “trying to find the facts” about the plans to deport the Rohingya Muslims.