Judgment day for Rohingyas in India

Detested in Myanmar, Rohingyas desperately seeking sanctuary will get a new reminder today of just how unloved they are in India too.

As the number of Rohingya fleeing a military crackdown for Bangladesh refugee camps races past 400,000 in three weeks, the Indian government is to put its case to the country's Supreme Court for expelling up to 40,000 who have arrived over the past 10 years.

According to media reports, the government will argue that the Rohingya are a security threat who could aid terrorists. Civil rights campaigners and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein have strongly opposed India's move.

And many experts question where India could send the Rohingya even if the government gets Supreme Court backing.

The plight of the Rohingya in India, and even neighbouring Nepal, highlights the difficulty the international community faces finding them a long-term home. While Bangladesh has been the main destination, some have ended up in neighbouring countries, almost always forced to live in squalor.

There are 16,000 Rohingya registered in India according to the UN, but many more are undocumented.

Officials say nearly 7,000 live in shanties in Jammu in the Indian Himalayas, where they started arriving in 2008.

Jammu itself is Hindu majority but is part of the same Indian state as neighbouring Kashmir, where India is fighting Muslim separatists -- which is what worries the New Delhi government. The Rohingya in Jammu mostly survive by collecting plastic rubbish for recycling or as labourers.

They say the hostility there is overt.

The ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party in Jammu has sought court orders to evict them from the state. One business group threatened to kill the Rohingya if they were not moved.

Last week a dead cow was found near a Rohingya settlement on the edge of Jammu city. According to Shafi Alam, a Rohingya who arrived in 2008, Hindu activists torched shanties accusing them of killing the cow -- a creature sacred to Hindus.

In New Delhi, there are 47 families living in dilapidated rooms at Kanchan Kunj camp.

The residents include Mohammad Salimullah, a grocery store owner and one of two Rohingya petitioners challenging the government at the Supreme Court.

"I would rather have the government kill us or put us in jail than have us deported back there (Myanmar).

"If we go back there, they will cut us into pieces and stack us 10-15 people together and set us on fire."

In neighbouring Nepal, about 250 Rohingya live in a slum of shacks in northern Kathmandu, anxiously awaiting news of relatives fleeing Rakhine.

Nepal is also attempting to prevent more Rohingya arriving.