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Fear, anxiety grip Yamuna Bazar families amid looming eviction

admin — Sun, 17 May 2026 19:51:00 +0000

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority has termed the residential cluster “illegal encroachment” and asked the residents to vacate the area within 15 days.

Over a week after eviction notices were served on May 7 to 310 dwelling units in Delhi’s Yamuna Bazar residential cluster along the floodplains, 43-year-old Rajvati has spent sleepless nights worrying about her family’s future.

“We have lived by the grace of the river. Our family has survived due to it,” she said. Her husband is a priest who conducts last rites, a work carried through generations in his family. Like her, residents of the 32 ghats in Yamuna Bazar, who have been residing there for generations and whose livelihood depends on the river, said they have nowhere to go.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority on May 7 tasked the Delhi Development Authority with reclaiming the floodplain land. It termed the residential cluster “illegal encroachment” and asked the residents to vacate the area within 15 days.

‘Didn’t vote for this’

Ms. Rajvati said they are hoping Chief Minister Rekha Gupta will save them. “We did not give our votes to become homeless,” she told The Hindu.

When floods hit during monsoons and their shanties are inundated, many residents temporarily move to nearby locations. “For the past two years, when the floods came, we went to the nearby school at Kashmere Gate for 15-30 days and then came back to our homes,” said 33-year-old Reena Devi, a resident of one of the ghats at Yamuna Bazar.

The fear of loss of livelihood that has revolved around the river generationally puts many at the crossroads. Aslam, 55, has spent 40 years crafting boats on the bank of the river. While he doesn’t stay on the floodplain, the river is his “bread and butter”.

Bharat Lal Sharma, an 80-year-old priest, recalls 2006 when similar notices were issued. “We fought against it then and got a stay from the Delhi High Court,” he said, adding that now 20 years later, without any rehabilitation plans, the notice makes no sense

Published – May 18, 2026 01:20 am IST

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Ukrainian Refugees Forced Onto Streets After Hungarian Asylum Rule Change

admin — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 17:21:02 +0000

The UNHCR has urged Hungary to reconsider the decision.

A new law threatening to drive thousands of migrants from Ukraine back to their home country or onto the streets has been implemented in Hungary. With effect from Wednesday, this legislative move denied Ukrainian refugees access to government-subsidised accommodation.

This new rule is the outcome of a decision made in June by Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban to restrict public assistance to refugees from areas of Ukraine that are not thought to be impacted by the war between Ukraine and Russia.

The list, which will be updated monthly by the Hungarian government, includes thirteen regions in Ukraine. It is unknown how many of the 31,000 Ukrainians who are seeking refuge in Hungary will be impacted by the new legislation.

Government Commissioner Norbert Pal defended the change as “reasonable and proportionate” after two and a half years of war. He told the pro-government Magyar Nemzet newspaper that “those who wanted to get back on their feet in Hungary have been able to do so.”

Privately-owned shelters have already started evicting refugees now ineligible for support, the Migration Aid group said.

In Kocs, north of Budapest, around 120 refugees were ousted from a guest house under police supervision on Wednesday, an AFP photographer saw.

Most were Roma women and children from Transcarpathia in western Ukraine, where there is a large Hungarian community.

“We are in a hopeless situation because we have nowhere to go,” Marina Amit, a mother-of-five who fled to Hungary last year, told AFP.

“We cannot go home to Ukraine; I have a 17-year-old son,” she added, saying she feared he would be conscripted into the Ukrainian army.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, estimated this week that 2,000-3,000 Ukrainians could lose access to subsidised accommodation.

The rule change will result in “job losses and impact school enrolment, jeopardising the positive integration achievements obtained so far,” UNHCR said in a statement urging Hungary to reconsider.

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