Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Jun 21: The number of people who want to leave India for fear of their lives has increased by 996.33% in the past 10 years between 2008 and 2018.
Only, 4,722 Indians wanted to leave India in 2009 as they did not feel safe to live in the country. However, in 2018, as many as 51,769 people have applied for political asylum in foreign countries. This was known by the analysis of the data gathered by the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Canada and USA are the most favourite nations among the Indians who are seeking political asylum in the last 10 years. While 1,321 Indians sought political asylum in USA, 1,039 applied for the same in Canada.
The difference of applications of political asylum seekers between US and Canada was just 282 some 10 years ago. However, in 2018, there was a sharp increase in these numbers and the difference rose to 22,967 with 28.489 Indians seeking political asylum in US against only 5,522 for Canada.
According to the data of UNHCR of 2018 pertaining to asylum seekers, after USA and Canada, the preferred counties where Indians would like to seek political asylum are South Africa, Australia, UK, South Korea and Germany.
Seeking political asylum in the above mentioned countries is not surprising but what is concerning is that there are Indians who have sought political asylum in counties like Yemen, Sudan, Burundi, Bosnia etc, which have a long history of war and ethnic unrest.
India is not a popular country among political asylum seekers of rest of the world, though it is the largest democracy in the world. To give a picture on this, in 2018, out of the 35.03 lac political asylum seekers throughout the world, only 0.34% (11,957) sought political asylum in India.
The USA, Germany and Turkey were the most favoured nations among the political seekers throughout the world.
On the other hand, when it comes to South Asia, India has the most number of asylum seekers. In 2018, out of the 11,957 people who sought political asylum in India, 65% were from Afghanistan (7,864) followed by 2,064 from Myanmar and 1,134 from Yemen.
When comparing the data of Indians who want to leave the country for political asylum abroad, with those of the rest of the world who want to settle in India, Indians are 334 percent more than the others.
India already is a home for nearly 1.95 lac refugees as of 2018. In South Asia, Pakistan is home for the most number of refugees with 14.04 lac mostly Afghanis. Bangladesh has 9.06 lac , most of them are Rohingya Muslims from neighbouring Myanmar.
The reason why fewer people prefer India as the destination in political asylum seeking is that India is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Conventions on the status of refugees. In addition, it has not signed the 1967 UN protocol on the same also. The two rules clearly define the rights and protection the refugees can avail in the countries where they get the asylum.
India does not have a clearly defined domestic policy on treating the refugees. Most of the time, it is subjective and decided on case to case basis.
In the past few years, India has seen stiff opposition in providing political asylum to refugees, especially Rohingya Muslims.
BJP is openly demanding the repatriation of Rohingya Muslims saying that they are threat to the security of the nation. India handed over seven Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar.
With regards to Indians seeking asylum abroad, Narendra Modi government said in the parliament in 2018 that those who seek political asylum in a foreign government are degrading the Indian system for their personal gains. It also said that India, being a democratic country, provides avenues for everyone to redress their issues lawfully.