The United Nations has declared June 20 as World Refugee Day. This year's theme is - Hope Away from Home.
Pexels
The refugee influx began with the partition of India in 1947, and by the start of 2010, the country had hosted nearly 450,000 refugees from within and outside the region. Here is a look at some of the refugees in India.
Pexels
Partition refugees from Pakistan in 1947. They are those refugees who came into India following the bloody partition of the country.
Wikimedia Commons
Tibetan refugees that arrived in 1959. At that time a revolt had erupted in Lhasa following the invasion of the country by China. Many people fled the country and took shelter in India.
Wikimedia Commons
Chakma and Hajong from present day Bangladesh in early 1960s. They were originally residents of the Chittagong Hill Tracts of erstwhile East Pakistan, who had to flee when their land was submerged by the Kaptai dam project in the 1960s.
Raghu Rai / Magnum Photos
Other Bangladeshi refugees in 1965 and 1971. Many faced religious persecution in East Pakistan.
Wikimedia Commons
Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from the 1980s. A civil war was fought in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009, between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils. Many Sri Lankan Tamils sought refugee in India.
AP
Most recently Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. In August 2017, armed attacks and massive scale violence forced thousands of Rohingya to flee their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. They took refugee in countries like India and Bangladesh.
Refugees across the world face problems of persecution at home and citizenship issues wherever their are living. The refugee problem in India has been much discussed amid issues of rising population and resource distribution.