West Bengal Child Rights Commission moves SC over Rohingya deportation

Kolkata: The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) on Wednesday filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court against the central government's stand on the deportation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

The Commission has refused to send back refugee children to the neighbouring country, branding the policy as 'inhuman and anti-human'. "We have moved the Supreme Court. There is no question of sending the children back," WBCPCR Chairperson Ananya Chakraborti told IANS.

Earlier, the chairperson said that the commission had intimated its stand on the issue to the Chief Minister's Office.

She said as many as 24 Rohingya children are present in shelter homes and 20 in prisons with their mothers, adding that the child rights protection body has also refused to share the list with the Centre.

Earlier in the day, reacting on Rohingyas issue, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that it is a policy issue and the government has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in this regard. "This is a policy issue and the government has submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court in this regard," Jaitley said.

On Monday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that all Rohingyas are not terrorists even as the Central government stuck to its stand of deporting the embattled community and said some of them were linked to Pakistani terrorist groups.

Mamata said the central government had asked the state government to prepare a list of the children (residing in shelter homes and prisons) in the state and share it with them to execute the deportation.