'India has proud humanitarian tradition of welcoming & embracing refugees': Shashi Tharoor on Rohingya row

New Delhi: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday attacked the Centre on the row over accommodation of Rohingyas here, saying this "confusion" in the government is a disgrace to a nation that has served on the executive committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Hours after Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that Rohingya refugees in the national capital will be shifted to flats for economically weaker section, the Union Home Ministry on Wednesday had denied any such move and directed the Delhi government to ensure that "illegal foreigners" remain in detention centres pending their extradition.

Slamming the government, Tharoor said this "confusion" in the Union government is a disgrace to a nation that has served on the executive committee of the UN agency -- UNHCR.

"We have a proud humanitarian tradition of welcoming & embracing refugees for millennia. BJP, please don't betray Indian civilization," he said in a tweet.

This confusion in the Union Govt is a disgrace to a nation that has served on the Executive Committee of the @UN agency @Refugees: https://t.co/IuyV0XJ0s1
We have a proud humanitarian tradition of welcoming& embracing refugees for millennia. BJP, pls don't betray Indian civilizn.

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 18, 2022

Tharoor also shared a media report on the minister's remarks and the government's denial.

On Wednesday, Puri, the Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, had tweeted that India has always welcomed those who have sought refuge in the country and all Rohingya refugees would be shifted to EWS flats in east Delhi's Bakkarwala area. But in the evening, he shared the Home Ministry statement clarifying the issue of Rohingya illegal foreigners and said it "gives out the correct position".

In the statement, the Home Ministry said, "With respect to news reports in certain sections of media regarding Rohingya illegal foreigners, it is clarified that the MHA has not given any directions to provide EWS flats to Rohingya illegal migrants at Bakkarwala in New Delhi."