Protection of Refugees in India: Quest for National Refugee Law

Protection of refugees in India is solely regulated at policy level by national administrative authorities as India is neither a party to the protocol 1951 Refugee Convention nor has it adopted national refugee legislation. However, India is hosting around 190,000 refugees originating from various countries of the world. Refugees in India are facing uncertainty on their rights because of the absence of codified protection strategy and specific national laws on aliens which made no distinction between refugees and foreigners. The paper analyses national initiatives, UNHCR’s role and the role of the judiciary towards achieving refugee protection in India. Finally, the paper argues that India should develop own national refugee legislation. This working paper outlines the research background along with the adopted research methodology and set out the structure of the final paper.