Chin refugee mother seriously injured after attack in Delhi

23 April 2015 — A Chin refugee mother has suffered serious injuries in an attack in New Delhi, India around 10:30pm last Sunday.

Mai V (name changed for security reasons), 21, was suddenly pulled out of a rickshaw to the ground by three Indian men on a motorbike while she and her three female friends were on their way home from a job interview in Gurgoan, southwest Dehli.

She told the Chin Human Rights Organization: “One of the three men pulled my hair and I fell down from the rickshaw. And I was unconscious for hours. When I woke up, I was in Mata Chanan Devi hospital.”

“I was badly hurt in my head and it was bleeding a lot. My whole body was wounded. I felt dizzy and pain everywhere. The doctor suggested to me to get treatment in the hospital. But I spent only one night as I didn’t have money.”

According to the CHRO, her friends paid for the hospital charges.

The case was reported to the Socio-Legal Information Centre, an ‘implementing partner’ of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and to the police on Monday.

Mai V also said that she had been raped by an Indian man in 2011 and given birth to a baby son that December.

“I worked at a wedding party at night. I was tired and standing outside the room for a while.  and finished work at night. All of a sudden, a man grabbed me from behind, closed my mouth with cloth and dragged me into a room downstairs.”

“He said he would kill me if I screamed for help. I was only 17 years old. I felt ashamed but was not able to hide the truth as I got pregnant. I felt helpless and ashamed even to mix with friends and the family with whom I stayed. I cried secretly all the time and decided to end my life many times,” she added.

Eventually with the help of her friend, she reported the case to the SLIC and the UNHCR in Delhi. However, she has never received a response from either organization.

She said: “I had a baby by operation at a hospital and realized after a few days that I got breast cancer. As I was not healthy, my baby was looked after by the refugee family with whom I stayed.”

She was working as a housemaid for a Korean family and was able to spend time with her son only over the weekend.

Mai V had been looking for a job since the Korean family had moved back to their country about a month ago.

But currently, she is still on medication, and unable to stand up, let alone walk.#