Indian Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh reiterated Thursday that tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar residing in India are "not refugees but illegal immigrants."
"The people who have entered into India from Myanmar are not Rohingya refugees. We have to understand this reality," Singh said in a speech at a seminar organized by the National Human Rights Commission in New Delhi.
His remarks come 10 days after the top U.N. human rights official criticized India's measures to deport Rohingya — a persecuted, stateless minority in Myanmar — at a time when violence and possibly "ethnic cleansing" are being perpetrated against them in that country.