The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has instructed the Chief Secretary of Telangana and Director General of Police to begin screening Rohingya Muslims and their contacts for COVID-19 on ‘priority’ after receiving intelligence inputs that claimed some of the refugees visited the Tablighi Jamaat 'Ijtema’ at Mewat, Haryana and also attended the congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi. 

“Rohingyas residing in camps in Hyderabad, Telangana had attended Tablighi Jamaat Ijtema at Mewat, Haryana and had visited Nizamuddin Markaz at New Delhi. Similarly, Rohingyas living in Shram Vihar, Shaheen Bagh, Delhi who had gone for TJ activities, have not returned to their camps. Also, presence of Rohingya Muslims after attending Tablighi Jamaat work has also presently been reported from Derabassi, Punjab and Jammu area of UT of Jammu & Kashmir,” the letter dated April 15 stated.  

“Therefore, Rohingya Muslims and their contacts may need to be screened for COVID-19. Accordingly, necessary measures be taken in this regard on priority,” the letter continued.

In India, a significant number of people who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi and their contacts have been tested positive for COVID-19. Among the total number of 766 cases recorded on Friday in Telangana, most of them attended the meeting in Delhi. 

On March 31, the Delhi Police registered a case against seven people, including Tablighi Jamaat Markaz chief Mohammad Saad, under stringent sections for culpable homicide not amounting to murder for violating the lockdown norms. They have also been booked for violation of the Epidemic Diseases Act and the Disaster Management Act.

Rohingya are a linguistic and ethnic group classified as the “most persecuted minority in the world” by the United Nations. Facing genocide, thousands of them were forcibly displaced from the Rakhine state in Myanmar to Bangladesh and India. Reportedly, India has more than 40,000 Rohingya Muslims as refugees, out of which more than 5,000 reside in Hyderabad.