India is home to nearly 3 lakh refugees from 30 countries including our neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
According to the latest available data which was presented by Minister Of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju in March 2016, a total of 2,89,394 refugees were living in India 28 different countries which also included stateless people.
Government data said India houses most refugees from Sri Lanka following the Tamil problem and Sri Lankan civil war. India currently houses over a lakh (1,02,467 to be precise) refugees from the Island nation.
Similarly, Tibet, which later became one of the reasons of Sino-India war in 1962 is another neighbouring land from where nearly 60,000 (58155 as per the data) came to India.
The people from Pakistan (8799) and Bangladesh (103817) have also come to India to seek refuge.
This is to highlight that India isn’t signatory to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention nor its 1967 Protocol, the main reasons why most of the European countries which are not allowing refugees on their land are obliged to welcome them.
Despite not being the signatory to the accord, India houses a handful of Syrians because they came via The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), reports, The Times of India.
