In a written reply to a question, the Union minister of state for home affairs informed the Lok Sabha that the entry of illegal migrants was clandestine and surreptitious and thus, an accurate figure of how many of them were currently living in the country was not available.
As per an estimate, the number of Rohingya migrants could be around 40,000, he said, adding that none of them had been deported so far.
Rijiju said though India was not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol thereon, the country's track record in dealing with or providing protection to refugees had internationally been acclaimed.