Dozens of Rohingya Muslims, who fled to India from violence and persecution in Myanmar, have been detained and face possible deportation home, according to recent media reports.

Indian police reportedly arrested more than 150 persecuted Rohingya refugees found living illegally in the northern region of Jammu and Kashmir and a process had begun to deport them back to Myanmar.

Dozens of Rohingya are now living in a makeshift ‘holding centre’ at Jammu’s Hira Nagar jail after local authorities conducted biometric and other tests on hundreds of people to verify their identities. 

The drive is reportedly part of a move to trace foreigners living in Jammu without valid documents.

The Rohingya living in Jammu have expressed fears about the threat of deportation.

India’s Hindu nationalist government regards the Rohingya Muslims a security risk, and has ordered that thousands of them living in scattered settlements be identified and repatriated.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government also scrapped its disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir’s special status in August 2019 and now administers the region from New Delhi.

The NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the Indian government to provide refuge to dozens of Rohingya Muslim asylum seekers who had been adrift in the Andaman Sea for more than two weeks.

Presently more than 40,000 registered Rohingya refugees live in India across four states and the community is currently living in desperate conditions with a lack of food, water toilets and hygiene.

Local activist groups are support the Rohingya but the community have fallen victim to a nationalist campaign launched by the Indian Government a year ago with anti-Muslim sentiments running high.

The Rohingya Muslims in India have say it would be dangerous for them to return to Myanmar after fleeing violence and persecution over the years.

Local Rohingya community leaders in Australia say they are worried about the future of their compatriots at home in the wake of the Burmese military coup.

“The Burmese military have a long history of controlling everything and attacking ethnic minorities in Burma. We have never trusted them and this is why,” Melbourne based Rohingya leader Shahid Habib said.

Described by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as “one of, if not the, most discriminated people in the world,” the Rohingya are a Muslim minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar.

But, Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as an ethnic group in the country and considers them Bangladeshi refugees.

A violent crackdown in 2017 by Myanmar’s army on Rohingya Muslims saw hundreds of thousands fleeing across the border into Bangladesh.

Many have risked perilous journeys in the hope of reaching Malaysia and Indonesia by unseaworthy boats.