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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Arson? Demystifying the Midnight Fires in India's Rohingya Refugee Camps -Riya Singh Rathore

Arson? Demystifying the Midnight Fires in India's Rohingya Refugee Camps -Riya Singh Rathore

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published Published on Mar 9, 2022   modified Modified on Mar 11, 2022

-TheWire.in

As Rohingyas in India face rising Islamophobia, a strong tide of Hindu nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment, the view that fires in refugees camps are due to accidents is rather unconvincing.

Rohingya refugee camps in India witnessed four fires in 2021 alone, higher than any other year prior. Between 2016 and 2021, 12 mysterious fires broke out in Rohingya camps alone. Most of these conflagrations demonstrated a peculiar trend – they catalyse at midnight, often on a disputed property, are preceded by threats of eviction or bigotry but eventually reported to be the result of bad urban planning, especially short circuit.

This peculiarity is not limited to Rohingya refugee settlements in metropolitans like Delhi and Hyderabad but also reaches regions such as Haryana and Jammu. In all such areas, the refugees live in makeshift shanties on city outskirts and earn their livelihood through ad-hoc and informal labour. Most residents in camps arrived in 2012 and onwards, following surges in ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. The numbers vary on how many Rohingya refugees have found a home in India, but a recent estimation settles on 40,000 people.

In India’s case, the demand for habitable and fire-resistant refugee camps is muddied by the country’s own host of problems. In a socio-political sense, the Rohingyas in India exist in a painfully complicated nexus of rising Islamophobia, a strong tide of Hindu nationalism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and India’s non-existent refugee laws. Such disarray places hundreds of Rohingyas and the matter of their refoulement solely in India’s bilateral relations with Myanmar. Amidst such confusion, the routine and yet mysterious fires that raze Rohingya camps to the ground become an added element of concern.

Mysterious fires 

It would not be much of a leap to assume that most fires are arson. However, authorities differ.

According to official reports, of the 12 recorded fires, five were a result of a faulty circuit, and seven have unknown causes. That is, all fires whose causes are known are said to have started due to short circuits. Upon entering an average refugee home in New Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj, one of the better-off camps, it is evident why bad urban planning is an easy scapegoat. All houses have open stoves with no gas cylinder covering and are often kept in one corner of the tent, extremely close to the flammable cotton and plastic sheet walls. Aside from cooking, all electricity comes through naked wires that coil around the tent and lay in the open. This collection of shanties made of bamboo, tarp, and cloth are home to nearly 200-250 people.

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TheWire.in, 9 March, 2022, https://thewire.in/rights/arson-demystifying-the-midnight-fires-in-indias-rohingya-refugee-camps


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