It's been an interesting few years in terms of the politics of repression and persecution from South Asia.
A refugee claim against India is quite different than a claim arising from Pakistan. As former Refugee Protection Officers and then lawyers in private practice, my law partner (Bjorn Harsanyi) have seen our fair share of refugee claims from all over the world.
The political climate has changed in India. We are seeing a significant increase in claims against that country.
I'll excerpt a few paragraphs (redacting any information that might be identifying) from a recent, successful, claim arising from a fear of political persecution by a young Sikh man to illustrate:
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[ 12 ] For a claimant to be considered a Convention refugee, the well-founded fear of persecution must be by reason of one or more of the five grounds: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.
[ 13 ] In this case, the evidence before me is that the claimant faces persecution due to his real and imputed political opinion as he is in favour of an independent Punjab, known as Khalistan. I find that the claimant has established a nexus to a Convention ground – political opinion. Accordingly, I have assessed his claim under section 96 of the Act and not under section 97.
We were able to explain the delay in claiming; while he had entered Canada as an international student, he was waylaid by some inadequate advice which resulted in him blindly going down dead-end avenues to obtain status.
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[ 17 ] The claimant has also provided corroborating documentary evidence to support his claim. This evidence forms part of Exhibits 5 and 6. I have no reason to doubt the genuineness of the documents and accept them as genuine. Based on the claimant's straightforward testimony and the corroborating evidence, I find him to be a credible witness and accept his allegations to be true on a balance of probabilities. In particular, on a balance of probabilities, I accept that:
- The claimant was harassed by a local area politician due to the claimant's political and social activities ...;
- He was detained and questioned by the ..., followed by detention at the hands of ... officers and officers of the ...;
- The claimant was accused by the authorities in India for having links with Khalistan supporters and extremists;
- The claimant joined the organization ...; and
- He has a subjective fear of returning to India as alleged.
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Objective evidence supports the subjective fear of the claimant of returning to India.
Regarding the treatment of pro-Khalistan Sikhs by authorities in Punjab, the Response to Information Request (RIR states that:
In correspondence with the Research Directorate, a representative from the World Sikh Organization (WSO) of Canada, a human rights organization promoting the rights and protection of Sikhs in Canada and around the world (WSO n.d.), stated that Sikh communities that "advocate for and support a separate Sikh state or Khalistan" or challenge the power of the state government in religious matters, activists against Deras [groups of Hindu, Sikh, Muslim or Christian devotees who follow the teachings of a spiritual guru (The Indian Express 29 Apr. 2010) [1]], and Sikhs who are suspected of being "militant sympathizers" are "subject to monitoring and in some cases, detention and torture" (WSO 17 Apr. 2015). The representative also noted that "while Punjab has not seen a return to wide-scale violence that marked the years 1980-1995 in which the Sikh community as a whole faced hardships … segments of the Sikh population in India continue to face harassment, detention and torture due to their political or religious beliefs" (ibid.)...
Objective evidence also shows that activists who support the creation of Khalistan suffer abuse and human rights violations at the hands of police forces.
[ 21 ] Sikhs who support Khalistan often find themselves harassed by the police and are detained and tortured. Similarly, religious … Sikhs are in certain instances suspected of harboring separatist tendencies and [are] the target of scrutiny by the Punjab Police. Former militants are also closely monitored in Punjab and often arbitrarily detained and questioned. (17 Apr. 2015)5
Another RIR on treatment of youth who have a religious mind states that:
FirstPost indicates that Gurnaam Singh, a human rights activist, "alleges that the youth have been made scapegoats to a state-sponsored terrorism" (FirstPost 31 Oct. 2017). The same source quotes Singh as stating that " [t]errorism has been the past of Punjab and people have always been concerned about their safety and lived in fear of its revival. Every government, be it Shiromani Akali Dal or the incumbent Congress government has used this tool to keep people engaged in non-productive issues." (FirstPost 31 Oct. 2017) The same source quotes a relative of one of the accused as stating that "[t]hey are not terrorists but youths with a religious bent of mind and a deep faith in the Sikh religion. Whenever there was a malicious and derogatory campaign on social media against Sikhism they used to answer the narrative and that just became their fault." (FirstPost 31 Oct. 2017)...
[ 22 ] I also reference the various country condition documents provided by the claimant's counsel on the treatment of Sikhs and supporters of Khalistan. I give considerable weight to this evidence as it is from credible media outlets in India. ... Such expression of political opinion is seen as dissent.
[ 23 ] The objective evidence discussed above establishes that anyone with a religious mind and/or supporting the creation of Khalistan, including participating in any political activities supporting the creation of a separate Sikh state, are persecuted by authorities. The claimant has also faced persecutory acts by the authorities in India due to his real and imputed political opinion prior to coming to Canada.
There was no issue of state protection as it is the agent of persecution. The Member dealt with the issue of Internal Flight Alternative (that is whether the claimant could live reasonably and safely in another part of the country) and concluded by accepting the claim.
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[ 27 ] The claimant originates from the territory controlled by the State authorities of his country, who are also the agents of persecution feared by him. The objective evidence clearly establishes that anyone wanted for the reason of supporting the creation of Khalistan is persecuted by the authorities in India. There is no area in India where the claimant will be able to live safely and express his political opinion in favour of an independent state for the Sikhs. Therefore, I am satisfied that the claimant does not have an internal flight alternative available to him in his country.
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