By Malia Politzer

The vulnerability of Myanmarese staying in India is compounded by the fact that India has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention or the subsequent 1968 protocol—generally accepted as the standard for international refugee law—nor does it have any official national refugee policies. While some groups (such as Tibetans and Sri Lankans) are recognized by the Indian government as refugees and provided with aid, others (like the Myanmarese and Afghans) are not.

As a result, the Myanmarese are unable to secure legal documents—residential or employment permits—needed for proper assimilation. Nor has India always welcomed asylum seekers from the troubled neighbour: While India initially set up refugee camps to accommodate people fleeing the country after a 1988 democratic uprising, that support was short-lived. In 1994, India expelled anywhere between 1,000 and 10,000 asylum seekers back to Myanmar, according to New York-based advocacy group Refugees International.

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