(March 3, 2025)—On March 3, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar Andrews, U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture Alice Jill Edwards, and U.N. Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons sent a letter to the Indian government raising concerns about India’s “widespread, arbitrary and indefinite detention of refugees from Myanmar.” In the letter, they put special attention on the case of Rohingya Refugee Human Defender Mohammad Arfat, including a full profile of Arfat’s situation.
“While we do not wish to prejudge the accuracy of these allegations, we are extremely concerned about the arbitrary and indefinite detention of Rohingya, including Mohammad Arfat, and other refugees from Myanmar in India,” the special rapporteurs wrote in their letter to the Indian government.
Mohammad Arfat, 31, is a Rohingya refugee, genocide survivor, and human rights defender from Myanmar. Indian authorities arrested him in Assam State on December 23, 2020, physically assaulted him, and convicted him of immigration-related offenses, despite that he is a registered refugee with the U.N. refugee agency. In the last three years, Indian authorities detained Mohammad Arfat in two jails – the Karimganj District Jail and the Silchar Central Jail – and one detention center – the Goalpara Matia Detention Center – in Assam, India. While he already served the one-year sentence that he received in 2022, the Government of India continues to detain him without charges.
Fortify Rights has repeatedly raised the case of Mohammad Arfat, including directly with the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar. On June 6, 2024, Fortify Rights published a news release in English and Rohingya languages, including a Rohingya language audio version, advocating for the Indian government to immediately and unconditionally release Mohammad Arfat. The news release also highlighted Fortify Rights’s earlier filing of a 20-page complaint to the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Mohammad Arfat on May 30, 2024. In the complaint, Fortify Rights requested a ruling on Mohammad Arfat’s case.