NLSIU’s UNHCR Chair Panel Discussion | Representation in Refugee Law: The Right to Legal Aid for Refugees in India

The UNHCR Chair on Refugee Law at NLSIU is organizing a panel discussion titled “Representation in Refugee Law: The Right to Legal Aid for Refugees in India”, on May 20 (Monday), 2024, at 5 PM, in OAB 106. This panel will focus on the legal and material aspects of legal aid for refugees in India. The panelists are Advocate Sahana Basavapatna, and Paralegal and Researcher Iftikar Hussain Siddique.

Background

India is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention or to the Optional Protocol. Refugees have been accommodated in India on a case-by-case basis, however, in the absence of a comprehensive legal framework for their protection, most refugees are treated as illegal migrants, and are vulnerable to criminal prosecution. Even after refugees have served their sentence, they may be transferred to detention centres, awaiting deportation to a country which poses a risk to their lives. The recent deportation of 77 refugees from Myanmar, who had taken shelter in Manipur after the 2021 Military coup in Myanmar, indicates just how vulnerable refugees are in the absence of effective legal aid.

Refugees in India need legal representation not only at the stage of criminal prosecution, but also to enable them to apply for long-term visas, and seek access to various entitlements that they may qualify for. However, in the absence of recognition of their status as refugees, state-sponsored legal aid may fail to address their distinct needs. Recognising that there exists a constitutional imperative to provide free legal aid, this panel will focus on the experiences of together individual practitioners who work with refugees, to understand the challenges in providing them legal aid.

About the Panelists

Sahana Basavapatna is a lawyer by training and for more than 9 years, has been practising in the trial courts in civil, criminal and commercial law in Bangalore. Prior to relocating to Bangalore from New Delhi, Sahana worked at first in The Other Media from 2006-2009, an organisation that, at the time, worked with Burmese refugees. Sahana went on to pursue a career as an independent researcher working on forced migration and environmental law. Her research includes work with and on, among others, on the Chins and the Rohingyas from Burma and Dalits from Pakistan. She is a member of the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, based in Calcutta.

Iftikar Hussain Siddique, is an Inlaks Shivadasani Fellow and a paralegal from Assam. He is working on creating access to legal aid by conducting awareness and empowerment camps at the community level and by training other paralegal volunteers. He has worked with multiple organizations, researchers, academics, and institutions at grassroots-level and helped people get legal representation during the pandemic. He also regularly conducts awareness programmes at the Matia Detention Centre in Goalpara, Assam, and works with refugees in the detention centre to provide them access to legal representation.