Description

A Rohingya man was convicted in 2011 for unlawful entry to Bangladesh under Section 3 of the Foreigners Act 1946 for four years after his arrest on 29 May 2007. The trial magistrate ordered that the time spent by the convict in prison following his arrest be deducted from his sentence of 5 years, in accordance with Section 35A of the CrPC 1898, meaning he should have been released in 2012. Despite this, however, he was still jailed in 2017 until the High Court’s judgment on 31 May 2017, which ordered he be immediately released to the custody of the UNHCR.

The judgment is particularly important to establish precedents in the cases of Rohingya as the application of Foreigner's Act 1946 is of a continuous nature which compelled many Rohingya refugees to stay behind the jail for indefinite periods despite that fact they have served their sentence for the offense they have committed. In most of those cases, the prisoners were held in jail under "Released Prisoner" status.

The Judgement is very important from another aspect. In most of the cases, the Myanmar prisoners are held in prisons and can't be sent back to Myanmar as the regular diplomatic channels do not correspond. In the past, examples of "push back" upon release have been practiced which basically constitutes refoulment. Attention to the principles of Non-Refoulment as a customary international law has been given in this judgment.