[Food Security] Supreme Courts seeks reply from Centre on plea to provide ration to refugees registered with UNHCR

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the Central government to a plea seeking to ensure food security for all refugees and asylum-seekers registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [Faizal Abdali vs UOI]..The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) under Article 32 stated that the economic downturn resulting from the Covid-19 crisis has precipitated the food insecurity being faced by refugees and asylum-seekers, and the failure by authorities to take steps to ameliorate them will have crippling consequences for the refugee population."Issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction to all the respondents to provide free dry rations to all the refugees and asylum seekers who are registered with the UNHCR, India without any requirement of Ration card, Aadhar card or any other documentation," the petitioner prayed..A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna issued notice to the Central government on the plea filed by an advocate, Fazal Abdali..The petition stated that as per the UNHCR factsheet, there are 2,10,201 refugees and asylum-seekers residing in India. Out of that are 203,235 refugees from Sri Lanka and Tibet, and 40,859 refugees and asylum-seekers of other nationalities are registered under the UNHCR’s mandate. The petition filed through advocate Amiy Shukla also pointed out that there are around 2000 refugees who are not registered with UNHCR as the registration process has been gravely affected due to the COVID-19. .It was further submitted that there are 17,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in Delhi NCT and that the condition of their settlements are deplorable."There are ever-present health challenges like lack of sanitation, no proper toilets, shortage of drinking water, etc. even during the best of times, for the residents of these settlements," the plea said..The petition also set out section-wise details of Afghan, Chin, Rohingya and Iraqi refugees. Regarding Ronhingyas, the plea said that most of the them work as daily-wagers, and the lockdown has affected their livelihood and resulted in a near-famine situation for most families as they have no source of income and documents to avail government services. "In 2020, when the lockdown was first declared by the Central Government, due to no ration assistance, the Rohingya ate from their own pockets for a few months, thus depleting their meagre savings," the petition stated. .The PIL, therefore, sought directions to provide dry ration to all refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR without any requirement of documents like ration cards, Aadhaar cards. The petitioner prayed that nutritious meals be provided for refugees and asylum-seekers along with entitlements mandated under the Food Security Act.