New Delhi: India’s junior foreign minister Thursday slammed citizens seeking asylum abroad as those who “denigrate” the system for “personal gains” despite prevailing democratic norms.
In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha by MP Sanjay Raut, Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said India, “being a democratic country”, provided avenues for everyone to redress their grievances lawfully.
Singh added Indian missions abroad liaised with local authorities and upon “verification” of national identity, extended necessary support to facilitate their return to India.
Singh, however, did not reveal the number of Indians seeking asylum abroad, saying data was not officially shared by foreign governments due to “privacy” and “data protection laws”.
However, the US has made public the number of asylum seekers from India. The Department of Homeland Security received a total of 41,330 applications from Indian nationals in 2023, which grew from 14,570 the previous year.
In 2021, a total of 4,330 Indians sought asylum in the US. The increase between 2021 and 2023 is 855 percent. These numbers include both affirmative and defensive asylum seekers.
Affirmative asylum seekers are those who initiate their own applications after entering the US while defensive applicants are those who seek asylum after being apprehended by authorities for entering the country illegally or having no valid documentation.
In 2023, a total of 13,030 Indians actively sought asylum in the US, while 28,300 nationals sought defensive asylum.
In recent years, an increasing number of Indians have also sought to enter the US illegally. Between October 2023 and September 2024 (the American financial year), the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) found 90,415 Indians attempting to enter the country illegally.
Nearly 1,86,000 Indians have attempted to enter the US illegally in 2022-23, both through the Canadian border in the north and the Mexican border in the south. In 2022, a record 96,917 Indians tried to move to the US without valid travel documentation.
In December 2023, French authorities grounded a chartered flight from the UAE with 303 passengers in a potential case of human trafficking. Most of them were of Indian origin, and likely aiming to reach the US.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)