Directs FRRO, Union Home Ministry for stay Visa

The High Court has directed Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) here under Union Home Ministry to issue appropriate orders on stay Visa of minor girl from Rohingya community of Myanmar who had been allegedly sold for Rs 80,000 to a man in Kashmir.

Seeking compliance by the next hearing, a division bench of Chief Justice BadarDurrez Ahmed and Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey directed the FRRO to expedite the process and pass appropriate orders in this regard.

The court directed state’s Additional Advocate General R A Khan as also Assistant Solicitor General of India Tahir Shamsi to facilitate the minor to apply for the stay Visa from the FRRO.

The court also directed the secretary Juvenile Justice Committee of High Court to take within a week steps for preparing all the documentation and ensure the same are submitted to the concerned authorities.

The directions came after the bench was informed that the minor was interviewed by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Delhi where she travelled after the authorities provided all assistance to her. While the minor has been issued UNHCR card following the court directions, she now needs a stay Visa from the FRRO.

According to the petition filed in High Court here by the minor’s maternal uncle, Muhammad Firoz of Maungdaw in Rakian district of Myanmar who lives as refugee in Delhi, the minor was kidnapped after riots of July 2015 in Mayanmar and taken to Bangladesh illegally where from she was trafficked to India. She was, finally, sold to a man from Saliya in Anantnag district for Rs 80,000.

Firoz through his counsel, Advocate Shah Faisal, moved the court in 2016 after he came to know about the whereabouts of the minor girl in Kashmir.

Parents of the minor in Myanmar had moved from pillar to post to trace out her whereabouts but could not find any lead. “The family had tried to lodge a missing report but for hostile situation against Rohinga community it was dumped,” says the petition.

It was in December 2015 that the minor made a call to her parents in Myanmar telling them she was sold to a man in Kashmir and forcibly made to marry him.

The petitioner submits that the parents of the minor left no stone unturned to enter the territory of India through proper channel but all their efforts proved futile as the Indian government does not allow more refugees to enter its territory besides strict Visa policy has been put in place by the Indian government.

The parents of the minor have finally contacted the petitioner who the brother of the minor’s mother and narrated him the whole ordeal.

The petitioner came into contact with a person in Delhi who fortunately was a resident of Kashmir who extended him full support on his part. The petitioner somehow managed to find the whereabouts of the minor and reached residential house of one Ghulam Muhammad of Saliya in Anantnag district where the minor was found.