Rohingya Human Rights Initiative - ROHRIngya

India released crocodiles and venomous snakes into a river to stop Rohingya refugees from crossing the border.

This is a policy decision made by the Indian Border Security Force in April 2026.

A month later, the BJP won West Bengal. The new chief minister announced that deportations of Rohingya and Muslim migrants would begin immediately. During the campaign, the BJP had promised to remove what it called "Rohingya and Bangladeshi Muslim intruders" from voter rolls and throw them out of the country.

A Rohingya man living in West Bengal told The Diplomat this week: "Several Rohingyas have died in detention camps in India. In West Bengal's Dum Dum Jail, many lost their life waiting for help that never came. Our fear is that either we will be thrown into the sea, lynched, or dumped in these camps."

He also said this: "The BJP is inspiring other countries to hate Rohingya too. Malaysia, Indonesia all are developing the hate we see in India."

Think about that for a moment. A government's deliberate anti-Rohingya rhetoric is being cited by a Rohingya survivor as the reason other countries are turning against them. The petition in Malaysia that crossed hundreds of thousands of signatures. The crackdowns in Indonesia. None of these happen in isolation.

For Rohingya refugees in India right now, there is no safe direction. Myanmar is where the genocide happened. Bangladesh already holds over a million people with no legal status. The sea route killed nearly 900 people last year.
And the world's largest democracy is putting crocodiles in the river.

Source: The Diplomat, June 2026
https://thediplomat.com/2026/06/on-the-bangladesh-india-border-bjp-victories-spike-anxieties/

Follow this page for daily updates on the Rohingya crisis.

On the Bangladesh-India Border, BJP Victories Spike Anxieties Since the BJP takeover of West Bengal, Muslims and Rohingyas in the region talk among themselves in hushed tones and try not to attract attention, worried about their fate.

13 years after June 2012. This is where things stand.

The people displaced in 2012 never went home. Most are still in displacement camps in Rakhine State or in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.

The Arakan Army now controls the territory their homes once stood on. There is no path back.

Not one person has been prosecuted for the June 2012 killings.

Not one person has been prosecuted for 2017 either.

The International Court of Justice is expected to rule on Myanmar's responsibility for genocide later this year. It will be the first ruling of its kind. It will not bring anyone home.

In Malaysia, 417,000+ people just signed a petition to expel Rohingya refugees.

In Rakhine State, a communications blackout means we still don't know the full scale of what is happening right now.

We remember June 3, 10 and 13 because the Rohingya cannot afford for the world to forget. Every Black Day that goes unremembered makes the next one easier to commit.

No more black days.

June 2012 was not a riot that got out of hand.

Days before the violence started, Rakhine activists sent letters to villages across Sittwe telling households to send at least one man between the ages of 20 and 40 to the city. Buses were organised. People were transported in. The attacks on Rohingya neighbourhoods were coordinated.

What followed - the displacement camps, the movement restrictions, the statelessness - lasted not weeks but years. The 120,000 Rohingya driven from their homes in June 2012 were still in those camps when the 2017 genocide began. Many are still there today.

2012 was the rehearsal. The world watched and called it communal violence. Five years later, the same state carried out what the United Nations called a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.

We remember June 2012 because ignoring the first Black Day made the next one possible.