GUWAHATI: India on Thursday deported seven Rohingya men to Myanmar, despite UN warnings that they faced persecution in a country where the army is accused of genocide against the Muslim minority.
The men, who had been in detention for immigration offenses since 2012, were handed over to Myanmar authorities at a border crossing in India’s northeast state of Manipur.
“Seven Myanmarese nationals have been deported today. They were handed over to the authorities of Myanmar at Moreh border post,” said senior Assam police officer Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta.
Photos showed the seven men seated in a bus bound for the border in the remote hilly state bordering Myanmar’s far northwest.
The UN had voiced concern that returning the men ignored the danger they faced in Myanmar, where for decades the Rohingya have been targeted in violent pogroms by security forces.
A UN special rapporteur had warned India risked breaking international laws on refoulement — the return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they could be harmed.
Legal efforts to stymie their deportation failed when India’s Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a petition on their behalf and upheld their status as illegal immigrants.
“Even the country of their origin has accepted them as its citizens,” a three-judge bench said.
The Rohingya are despised by many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which refuses to recognize them as citizens and falsely labels them “Bengali” illegal immigrants.
They were concentrated in Rakhine state, the epicenter of a Myanmar army offensive that over the past year has driven 700,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh.
Myanmar’s army has denied nearly all wrongdoing, insisting its campaign was justified to root out Rohingya insurgents.
But a UN fact-finding mission said there was enough evidence to merit prosecution of several top Myanmar military commanders for crimes against humanity and genocide against Rohingya civilians.
India’s decision “to deport seven Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar is cruel and could put lives at risk of persecution including torture and potential death,” said John Quinley III, a human rights specialist with Fortify Rights, a non-profit organization.
New Delhi considers the Rohingya a security threat, pointing to intelligence which it says links the minority group to extremist organizations.
The government had ordered last year that all Rohingya inside India — New Delhi puts the figure at 40,000 — be deported.
The Supreme Court is considering a petition challenging the order as unconstitutional.
The UN says there are 16,000 registered Rohingya in India.
India deports seven Rohingya to Myanmar despite UN protest
India deports seven Rohingya to Myanmar despite UN protest
- The UN had voiced concern that returning the men ignored the danger they faced in Myanmar
Guterres warns UN risks ‘imminent financial collapse’
- “Member States must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse,” Guterres wrote
- Trump has often questioned the UN’s relevance and attacked its priorities
UNITED NATIONS: United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Friday warned that the world body is on the brink of financial collapse and could run out of cash by July, as he urged countries to pay their dues.
The UN faces chronic budget problems because some member states do not pay their mandatory contributions in full, while others do not pay on time, forcing it into hiring freezes and cutbacks.
“Either all Member States honor their obligations to pay in full and on time — or Member States must fundamentally overhaul our financial rules to prevent an imminent financial collapse,” Secretary-General Guterres wrote in a letter.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has in recent months reduced its funding to some UN agencies and has rejected or delayed some mandatory contributions.
Trump has often questioned the UN’s relevance and attacked its priorities.
The organization’s top decision-making body, the Security Council, is paralyzed because of tensions between the United States and Russia and China, all three of which are permanent, veto-wielding members.
Trump also launched his “Board of Peace” this month, which critics say is intended to become a rival to the UN.
- ‘Untenable’ -
Although more than 150 member states have paid their dues, the UN ended 2025 with $1.6 billion in unpaid contributions — more than double the amount for 2024.
“The current trajectory is untenable. It leaves the Organization exposed to structural financial risk,” Guterres wrote.
The UN is also facing a related problem: it must reimburse member states for unspent funds, Farhan Haq, one of the Guterres’ spokespeople, said during a press briefing.
The secretary-general also highlighted that problem, writing in the letter: “We are trapped in a Kafkaesque cycle; expected to give back cash that does not exist.”
“The practical reality is stark: unless collections drastically improve, we cannot fully execute the 2026 program budget approved in December,” Guterres’ wrote, adding: “Worse still, based on historical trends, regular budget cash could run out by July.”
Guterres, who will step down at the end of 2026, this month gave his last annual speech setting out his priorities for the year ahead and said the world was riven with “self-defeating geopolitical divides (and) brazen violations of international law.”
He also slammed “wholesale cuts in development and humanitarian aid” — an apparent reference to deep cuts to the budgets of UN agencies made by the United States under the Trump administration’s “America First” policies.
