Union Government launches Operation Insaniyat to help Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

The Union Ministry of External Affairs on 14 September 2017 launched Operation Insaniyat in Bangladesh to help Rohingya refugees.

The Operation was launched in response to the humanitarian crisis being faced on account of the large influx of refugees into Bangladesh.

India refuses to sign Bali Declaration over Rohingya issue

Key highlights

• Under Operation Insaniyat, India will distribute relief material consisting of items required urgently by the affected people. These materials are rice, pulses, sugar, salt, cooking oil, tea, ready to eat noodles, biscuits, mosquito nets etc.

• The relief material will be delivered in multiple consignments.

• The first tranche was brought to Chittagong by an Indian Air Force plane on 14 September 2017.

Rohingya People

• The Rohingya people are a stateless Indo-Aryan people from Rakhine State, Myanmar.

• There were an estimated 1 million Rohingya living in Myanmar. As of September 2017, nearly half of them have fled to other countries.

• Described by the United Nations in 2013 as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya population are denied citizenship under the 1982 Burmese citizenship law.

• The Rohingyas have faced military crackdowns in 1978, 1991–1992, 2012, 2015 and 2016–2017.

• The United Nations officials have described Myanmar's persecution of the Rohingya as ethnic cleansing, while there have been warnings of an unfolding genocide.