When bulldozers loomedAnd who is a refugee? They are people who have fled their countries to escape conflict, violence, or persecution and have sought safety in another country. As per the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, refugees are unable to return to their native countries because of feared persecution as a result of their identity, beliefs, or due to armed conflict, violence or grave public disorder. Many have been forced to flee with little more than the clothes on their back, leaving behind their homes, possessions, jobs and loved ones. They may have suffered human rights violations, injured in conflict, or endured loss of life and property. Arriving in a foreign land, these people are without the rights of a citizen; a constant threat of eviction looms over their heads.Another refugee named Dayalu Kumar, selling mobile covers at Tis Hazari to earn a meager livelihood, narrates the precarious nature of the refugee life. “We used to live under a constant threat that our houses would be bulldozed and we would be evicted from here. Now, we are being showered with flowers. We have been assured that we can stay here,” he said.On March 4, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had issued notices to ‘illegal’ settlements in the area, asking residents to vacate. The officials had notified a demolition drive on March 7 and 8 to remove the ‘encroachments’ on the Yamuna floodplains. The DDA, in a statement, said they were only adhering to a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order that declared the area to be a part of the Yamuna flood lands. The NGT in its October 2019 order, directed that the floodlands cannot be allowed to be encroached upon as it may have detrimental effects on the ecology of the river.However, on March 13, the Delhi High Court instructed the DDA for an interim halt on the demolition of the camp. The decision came in response to a plea filed by Ravi Ranjan Singh, a refugee, who sought protection for the camp until they were allocated alternative habilitation. Singh’s plea, invoking the CAA, underscored the government’s pledge to provide shelter to persecuted non-Muslim minorities from neighbouring nations.But are refugees only Hindus and Sikhs? While politics peaks over granting citizenship to persecuted minorities under the CAA, the situation on the ground shows that a ‘life of dignity’ is as much desired by the Rohingya refugees as it is by the Hindus and Sikhs at Majnu Ka Tila.
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