As many as 52 Indians, most of them Sikhs and also some Christians, are being held at a detention center in the US state of Oregon. They said they wanted to seek political asylum in the United States as they faced “severe religious persecution” in India.
The Indians are part of a larger group of 123 people who are being held at a facility in Sheridan, Oregon, as illegal immigrants, the Press Trust of India reported.
The detention center was visited on Saturday by a group of Congress members belonging to the Democratic Party. One of them, Representative Suzanne Bonamici, wrote: “Through our Punjabi translator, we learned that these men were planning to request asylum because they faced severe religious persecution in India. Most are Sikh or Christian. Instead, they were incarcerated in a federal prison.
“They said they came to the United States for religious freedom, but they felt as if they were ‘going crazy’ because they are being confined in small cells for up to 22 hours a day,” she stated, adding that they pointed out that non-immigrant prisoners got far more time out of their cells.
Media have reported that allegations of persecution of Sikhs in India had come up prominently during a debate in Britain’s House of Commons in March.
According to a Pew Research Center analysis, India ranked fourth-worst among 198 countries in terms of religious intolerance – government restrictions and social hostilities involving religion. India also ranks 15th-highest for persecution of Christians on the 2017 World Watch List compiled by Open Doors, a monitoring organization. The list is curated on the evaluation of places where it is highly risky to practice Christianity, and India’s rank was at 31 four years ago.
The asylum seekers have been held at the Federal Correctional Institution in Sheridan for more than a month. Six of them are husbands and fathers separated from their spouses and children. Reports say that the US administration of President Donald Trump under a “zero-tolerance” policy toward refugees has been separating parents from children and detaining the latter.
More than a thousand people including human-rights activists and Cristian groups protested and held a vigil near the Sheridan prison facility on Monday.
The congressional delegation also included US Senator Ron Wyden, who said: “As the child of parents whose families found refuge in America from the terrors of Nazi Germany, I strongly believe Donald Trump’s cruel and callous treatment of human beings seeking asylum flies in the face of America’s core humanitarian values.”
The ruling elite in India is dreaming about enhancing romance with Trump and have no worries for the poor low caste Hindus and other deprived masses. Huge amount of budget is spent on purchasing Military arsenal that money infact is sucked out of the poor’s blood and sweat. Public is drowning deep into the ocean of poverty whereas the radical BJP regime is dreaming of containing China and Pakistan.
Pakistan means , the holy land if pious people and Hindustan means the land of garbage.
Economic migrants, cant blame them for trying but please dont slander your mother country. There is no persecution in Punjab (unlsess, well, it´s the paki-side). For those that doubt me, please check what the very word "paki" means.
You are a first rate lier !
https://www.facebook.com/100001497970850/posts/1811606288899286/
Falcon Dave ,
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1743457802380802&id=100001497970850
In 1947 there were 9.8% (34 Million) Muslims in India, they are 13% (171 Million) today in 2018. That is 6x increase. So duffer, before you fart, think.
In P0rkistan Hindu population has come down from 24% in 1947 to less then 2%. That is called persecution maadarchod kutti ki chut.
This is absured, these people have gone to USA for economic gains and not because they are being persecuted. A total of over 20 million Christians and Sikhs each, live in India. It should be Parsis and Jains who should be complaining if there was really any persecution.
Grim picture.
India is second to none in the world as far as the subjugation and supression of religious minorities and low caste Hindus are concerned. What has been limelighted is just a tip of iceberg, the actual situation on ground depicts the more from picture. There are countless cases of grave human rights violations, that’s the every day norm in India, and it’s rampant under the present fanatic Hindu regime of Moodi. People of the other religions are forced to convert to Hinduism. They are beaten And warned to become Hindu or leave India.And this task is carried out by Hindutva army of BJP, which is fully supprted by Moodi regime.
i can accept the fact that christians are facing hard time in india just like other minorites and low caste people but i am not sure that the same applies to sikhs !! if that was so then why are we still having about 20 million of them in india ?
those sikhs who went to usa as refugees were directly or indirectly related to ‘khalistan moment’ ( they wanted to divide india again to form an independent sikh country) or 1984 anti sikh riots mostly politically motivated . i acknowladge those facts to be tragic and black spot for indian democracy but i am proud of them at the same time !! sikhs and gurkhas are the backbone of indian army and they are the one who are protecting us and i have never seen anyone discriminated just beacsue they are sikh !! discrimination is present in some or the other contex for other religion and classes as well as gender but i think other countries out there in the world have the same problem, it’s everywhere, you cannot single out one specific country and that too a country of 1.35 billion with 13 different religions , 22 state languages and 1650 (approx) dilects with having thousands of years of history of assimilation !!