Indians Among Top Asylum Seekers in OECD Countries

[Riaz Haq]

India is among the the top 5 sources of migrants seeking asylum in OECD countries, according to OECD's International Migration Outlook 2017. The other four are: China, Syria, Romania and Poland.  Is increasing religious violence in India, like Syria, contributing to growing numbers of asylum seekers from the South Asian nation?

UP CM Yogi Adiyanath with Indian PM Modi

Indian asylum seekers rank 2nd in New Zealand, 4th in Latvia and 6th in Finland and United Kingdom and 8th in Australia, the OECD report says. The numbers of Pakistanis seeking asylum remains stable but they still show up among the top 3 asylum seekers in some OECD nations such as the UK, Ireland, Italy, Greece and South Korea.

Indians have sought political asylum in more than 40 countries over the years, according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

There's a long history of India's religious and ethnic minorities seeking asylum abroad after being persecuted at home, starting with the exodus of 8 million Muslim refugees fleeing to Pakistan after the Partition of India.  Many more millions of Dalits, Muslims and Sikhs have left India to find refuge in Canada, Europe, the United States and elsewhere.  Pakistan, too, has seen members of its religious minorities leave the country after persecution by the majority community.

Europe has historically seen a large number of new asylum applications from Indians---6,300 in 2012 and 2013. The United States has also experienced an increase in the number of Indian asylum seekers in recent years.  Media reports show 2,100 Indians receiving asylum in the United States between 2012 and 2014. The rise of extreme right wing Hindu Nationalists and increasing violence against minorities are likely to further accelerate the trend.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Lynchistan: India is the Lynching Capital of the World

Fact-Checking Farahnaz Ispahani's "Purifying the Land of the Pure"

Indian Sikh Massacre of 1984

Yogi Adiyanath as UP CM

Hindu Nationalists Admire Hitler

Hinduization of India Under Modi

Muslim Victims of Gujarat 2002

India's Superpower Delusions: Modi's Flawed Policies

What Do Modi and Trump Have in Common?

[Riaz Haq]

#NBA’s #KevinDurant on #India"Cows, Stray Dogs" "Bunch of Underprivileged People" "20 years behind" #Poverty #Filth
https://www.thequint.com/sports/2017/08/11/nba-star-kevin-durant-on...

NBA champion Kevin Durant of the Golden State Warriors had visited India in July to help the NBA make inroads into the nation of 1.3 billion.
Durant took part in a camp in New Delhi, where he helped set a Guinness World Record for the largest basketball lesson – 3,459 people participated in it across multiple venues.
The NBA finals MVP met young players at the NBA Academy, with many more joining via satellite from four other cities across the country.
However, after returning to the United States, he said in an interview to The Athletic that India is 20 years behind in terms of knowledge and experience.

I went with no expectation, no view on what it’s supposed to be like. I usually go to places where I at least have a view in my head. India, I’m thinking I’m going to be around palaces and royalty and gold — basically thought I was going to Dubai. Then when I landed there, I saw the culture and how they live and it was rough. It’s a country that’s 20 years behind in terms of knowledge and experience.
Kevin Durant
Durant added that there are “just a bunch of underprivileged people living in India”.
You see cows on the street, monkeys running around everywhere, hundreds of people on the side of the road, a million cars and no traffic violations. Just a bunch of underprivileged people there and they want to learn how to play basketball. That was really, really dope to me.

[Riaz Haq]

A 6-year-old girl from #India died after crossing the #US-#Mexico border. In 2018, 8,997 people from #India were apprehended at the #Southwest border -- more than triple the number from the year before, when 2,943 Indian #illegal #migrants were caught. https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/14/us/border-migrants-india/index.html

On the day she died, the little girl was thousands of miles away from the country where she was born.

US Border Patrol agents found her remains this week in an area officials describe as "rugged desert wilderness," 17 miles west of Lukeville, Arizona. In a statement Thursday, US Customs and Border Protection said the deceased child was believed to be a citizen of India, and that she had been traveling in a group reportedly dropped off near the border "by human smugglers who ordered the group to cross in the dangerous and austere location."
An Arizona medical examiner said Friday that 6-year-old Gurupreet Kaur had died of hyperthermia. Temperatures in the area where agents found her remains Wednesday hovered around 108 degrees.
Her death highlights a rarely discussed reality that's been playing out at the US-Mexico border in recent years: A growing number of migrants from India have been crossing there.
Paid Content by Bristol-Myers Squibb
Flipping the rheumatoid arthritis status quo
Could understanding the role of biomarkers inform personalized approaches?
The number of Indian nationals apprehended at the Southwest border has been steadily climbing, and sharply increased last year, according to Border Patrol statistics. In the 2018 fiscal year, 8,997 people from India were apprehended at the Southwest border -- more than triple the number from the year before, when 2,943 Indian migrants were apprehended.

A larger trend
That's still a small percentage -- about 2% of the overall number of migrants apprehended at the Southwest border in fiscal year 2018. The clear majority of migrants apprehended at the border came from Latin American countries, largely from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
But the increase in Indians apprehended is notable. And it's part of a larger trend.
"There has been a pretty significant increase in general in migrants coming from other continents. It's not just Indians, says Jessica Bolter, a research assistant at the Migration Policy Institute who tracks migration patterns at the border.
An increase in Indian nationals and other migrants from outside the Western Hemisphere illegally crossing the US-Mexico border has been "an emerging trend for the past few years," a Department of Homeland Security official told CNN Friday.
The apprehensions of migrants from Bangladesh at the southwest border also increased significantly from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2018, nearly doubling from 564 to 1,198.
US Customs and Border Protection officials have recently highlighted the cases of groups of African migrants apprehended in Texas, noting that groups that arrived recently were primarily made up of families from the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola.
"With this girl from India, there hasn't been confirmation that she was traveling in a family, but it's likely," Bolter said. "This trend of increased family migration is echoing not just throughout Central America, but also beyond even the Americas. It indicates the message that families can enter the US easily is spreading."

[Riaz Haq]

Riaz Haq has left a new comment on your post "Indians Among Top Asylum Seekers in OECD Countries...": 

Number of #Indians political #asylum seekers jumps 996% in 10 years, up from 4,722 in 2009 to 51,769 in By 2018, according to #UNHCR. #Modi #BJP #India https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/996-rise-in-indians-seeking-p... via @indiatoday

he number of Indians who feel their life would be in danger if they continue to reside in the country is increasing at an exponential rate. An indicator of this trend for any country is the number of its citizens seeking political asylum in other countries.

For India, in the 10 years between 2008 and 2018, the total number of such people rose 996.33 per cent. These are Indians who have requested political asylum in other countries on the grounds that they feel fearful to continue living in the country.

In 2009, only 4,722 Indians felt scared to live in India and thus applied for political asylum in other countries. By 2018, this number rose to 51,769, reveals an IndiaToday.in analysis of data collected by the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

In these 10 years, the United States and Canada have remained the most favoured countries for Indians seeking political asylum. In 2009, as many as 1,321 Indians applied for political asylum in the US while 1,039 did it in Canada.

While these two countries are still favourites among Indian political asylum seekers, the gulf between the number of Indians applying in the US and Canada has widened in the past decade.

Ten years ago, the difference in applications for the US and Canada was marginal--just 282. But by 2018, it ballooned to 22,967. (A total of 28,489 Indians applied for political asylum in the US in 2018 while 5,522 did it in Canada.)

United Nations data on asylum seekers for 2018 show that after the US and Canada, Indians prefer to seek political asylum in South Africa (4,329), followed by Australia (3,584), the UK (1,667), South Korea (1,657) and Germany (1,313).

Seeking political asylum in these countries isn't surprising as they are all developed economies and have an image of being peaceful and prosperous.

But what may come as surprising to some is that Indians have also sought political asylum in countries like Yemen, Sudan, Burundi, Bosnia among others--countries which have routinely hogged headlines for war and armed unrest in recent times.

Overall, in 2018 there were 57 countries where Indians applied for political asylum.

UNHCR reports show that despite being the world's largest democracy, India is not a popular destination among political asylum seekers.

For example, in 2018 there were 35.03 lakh political asylum seekers in the world but only 0.34 per cent of them (11,957) sought political asylum in India.

The US, Germany and Turkey were the most favoured destinations for political asylum seekers with 7.18 lakh, 3.69 lakh and 3.11 lakh people applying to these countries respectively.

But this does not mean that no one is applying to India. When it comes to South Asia, India has the largest number of political asylum applications. In 2018, of the 11,957 political asylum seekers in India, 65 per cent (7,864) were from Afghanistan. This was followed by those from Myanmar (2,064) and Yemen (1,134).