International Journal of Law

Authors
Dr. Vivek Kumar

Abstract
India has had an age old tradition of according humanitarian protection to refugees and asylum seekers. It has followed a very liberal refugee policy. However, the absence of a refugee specific legislation can be attributed to India’s volatile situation in South Asian politics and the threat of terrorism faced by it. Even in such absence of a specific law, India has addressed the needs of refugees who have fled from their home country into its territory. It can be easily seen from that India notwithstanding its own legal concerns, particularly in the last couple of decades, and pressure of population and the attendant economic factors, continues to take a humanitarian view of the problem of refugees. Even though the country has not enacted a special law to govern ‘refugees’, it has not proved to be a serious handicap in coping satisfactorily with the enormous refugee problems besetting the country. The spirit and contents of the UN and International Conventions on the subject have been, by and large, honored through executive as well as judicial intervention. By this means, the country has evolved a practical balance between human and humanitarian obligations on the one hand and security and national interest on the other.