Prisons or Temporary Refuges? The Rohingyas
摘要
This chapter is about a group of people who can be called one of the ‘most vulnerable’ populations in the world at present—the Rohingyas. There are a lot of human traffickers in the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh who lure many of the innocent and tired Rohingyas to cross the border into India. It is these tired and innocent Rohingya girls and women whom I met in the Dumdum Correctional Home. The women had crossed over into India, lured by the dalals, in the hope of receiving some work, a roof over their heads, shelter for their families and a stable income. Some had come merely in search of their families, a futile search which landed them in prison. When I met them, I saw despondency, gloom and hopelessness written large on their faces. For some of the inmates I met, life seemed to be more secure in the correctional home than outside. It was probably because they had suffered immense persecution outside. They were sure that their homeland would never again be safe for them. Most Rohingyas hated their experiences in the courts. They said that they had to spend hours in courts with no solutions to their problems. Communication is another huge problem for the Rohingyas. The Rohingyas also face severe hostility and neglect from the local authorities in India. But things are neither easy for the Rohingyas nor for the correctional home authorities. For the correctional home authorities, establishing their identities is a complicated issue.