Misleading claim made about the number of Rohingya refugees. – Read the fact check

After Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s claim about providing EWS Flats to Rohingya refugees a heated discussion started on the internet. Many users are posting that Rohingya are illegal foreigners and they should go back. In the same series, a graphic went viral on social media showing the number of Rohingya refugees in different countries.

A user named kattarhindu0001 shared it with the caption, “Rohingya Go Back will be big hurdle in nation building and will be injustice for deserving indians. Rohingya Go Back D.m10. #रोहिंग्या_भगाओं_देश_बचाओं”

Fact check:

To check the viral claim DFRAC searched for the number of Rohingyas living in different countries as refugees. Our team found the number given in the viral claim is misleading. In 2017, there was a mass exodus of Rohingya people from Myanmar. More than 7.3 lakh people had to flee from there. These people had to seek centers in different countries majorly including the neighboring countries of Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, and then Thailand.

According to UNHRC, more than 880,000 Rohingya refugees have settled in and around Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar region,

According to an article in The Hindustan Times, there are about 16,000 UNHCR-certified Rohingya refugees in India. The government estimate puts the figure of Rohingya refugees living in India beyond 40,000 with maximum concentration in and around Jammu.

According to a report of voanews, Since 2015, the U.S. government has resettled more Rohingya than refugees from Syria’s civil war. Burmese community members believe that there are now more than 150 Rohingya families in the Fort Wayne area of the USA.  And till September 2017, there were more than 12000 Rohingyas living in USA.

Moreover, referring to Wikipedia we found, there were around 200 Rohingya people living in Canada( as of September 2017), 300 in Japan(May, 2018), 1,000 in Indonesia( October,2017),0001,90,000 in Saudi Arabia(Januray 2017) and 50000 in UAE( December, 2017).

Conclusion:

It is clear from DFRAC fact check that the viral claim of Rohingya refugee number in different countries is misleading.

Claim: More than 50,000 Rohingya Refugee living in India

Claimed by: Social media user

Factcheck: Misleading