Is New Zealand going the Canada way? Over 500% rise in asylum claims by Indians over past 2 years

In 2022-23, the number of refugee claims by Indians was 172 before it shot up 579 percent to reach 1,168 claims in 2023-24. In 2024-25, there have been 453 claims so far.

Graphic by Shruti Naithani | ThePrint

New Delhi: A Sikh Indian national reached New Zealand on a student visa in October 2014. In 2015, after watching the movie Hawayein on the violence that unfolded after Indira Gandhi’s assassination and Operation Blue Star, he became interested in the Sikh separatist movement, joined separatist groups and began promoting ‘Khalistan’ on social media.

By 2021, unemployed and without a valid visa, he sought refugee status from New Zealand’s Immigration and Protection Tribunal, claiming deep involvement in the Khalistan movement, arguing that he could not return to India, where supporters were “silenced”, “harassed”, and “labelled as terrorists”. As an example, he cited Amritpal Singh, who, he said, was jailed for advocating Sikh interests. The arguments worked, and the tribunal granted him refugee status in June 2023. 

His case of seeking refugee status due to alleged religious persecution in India is not isolated. 

Data accessed by ThePrint showed a 579 percent surge in the applications for refugee status in New Zealand by Indians over the past two years. The number of refugee claims filed in New Zealand by Indians was 89 in 2020-21, followed by 104 in 2021-22. In 2022-23, the number was 172 before it shot up 579 percent to 1,168 claims in 2023-24. In 2024-25, there have been 453 claims so far.

The data also showed that among 53 countries from which citizens had applied for refugee status in New Zealand, India had the highest number of refugee claims, followed by China. In 2023, of 2,345 asylum claims, Indian nationals filed nearly 50 percent—1,168. However, approvals remained low. Only 15 Indian applicants were granted refugee status in 2022-23. Many of the applications mentioned religious persecution; many were from Sikhs.

However, no data is maintained to show how many of the applications were filed citing religious persecution. The reasons for filing refugee claims include religious or political persecution, economic factors, and fleeing the country due to war and violence, among others.

Immigration advisers in New Zealand claimed that many people were exploiting the system to stay back in the country.

Speaking to ThePrint, Pawandeep Singh, an immigration adviser from New Zealand, said that in the last year, he started receiving a lot of inquiries regarding asylum visas. “Over the past 18 months, we have received two to three inquiries weekly from individuals—on temporary visas—seeking to remain in the country under refugee status. Most of these applications are citing religious persecution,” he said.

Pawandeep Singh said the trend was concerning as most applicants did not appear to have genuine grounds for asylum. “Most cannot even present sufficient proof to support their claim. Many are coached by their advisers to present their cases in a certain way. They are just attempting to use the asylum process to extend their stay in New Zealand and continue working for as long as possible,” he said, adding that most applicants were from Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir.

A similar trend has been unfolding in Canada.  

Speaking to ThePrint, Kanwar Sierah, a regulated Canadian immigration consultant, said that what is happening in New Zealand is what Canada has already gone through.

One common thread, he said, is that this is not about religion or sexual orientation; it is about staying outside India by any means necessary.

“These are people looking for ways to get permanent residency (PR), and this seems to be the easiest route. Why compete with others in a point-based system where one has to prove their credibility? Many of them come here, explore their options for three to four years, and once they fail, they seek asylum citing persecution, which is the easiest way out,” he said.

Genuine claimants are suffering because of these individuals, he said.

According to him, for the first time in Canada’s history, the number of inside Canada asylum applications has surged, with claimants exceeding 100,000.

“This is extremely concerning. We have now asked the government to establish a time frame within which people should be allowed to submit refugee or asylum claims upon entering Canada. It cannot be for an indefinite period. Implementing such a measure would help prevent the system from being misused,” he said.

‘A racket, need for better scrutiny’

Asylum claims by Indian nationals at Canadian airports surged by over 500 percent in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, according to reports. Roughly 6,000 claims were filed during this time, doubling the number of requests by mid-2024.

Speaking to ThePrint, Sushant Sareen, a senior fellow at Observer Research Foundation, said that countries such as Canada and New Zealand must decide whether virtue signalling was more important than maintaining their relationship with India.

Sareen criticised these countries for their lenient stance on asylum requests, suggesting that “wokeness” was guiding immigration policies and allowing such cases.

“Their responsibility is to approach India and inform home governments of specific cases. Granting asylum based on bizarre claims will only backfire. Look at Canada—protests spill onto streets, and locals suffer. Does New Zealand want the same? If not, they need to wake up and better understand internal affairs in India,” he said.

In its findings, the NZ tribunal that granted refugee status to the Sikh national remarked: “The appellant may be arrested upon return to India for his online activity”.

It cited an Australian report by its foreign affairs and trade department, saying that “since the election of the BJP government in 2014, Hindu nationalism has escalated with the aim of restoring the pre-eminence of Hindu cultural civilisation in India”. 

The tribunal also referred to reports of arrests of several individuals for pro-Khalistan social media activity, saying that the Indian government “monitors online activity and is concerned about a revival of Sikh separatism in India and some individuals responsible for posting pro-Khalistan content online have been arrested, charged with terrorism offences, imprisoned and mistreated”.

The tribunal noted that there was a real risk that upon arrest, the applicant could be mistreated, charged with terrorism or similar offences, and imprisoned long-term.

Such treatment, it said, would constitute serious harm in violation of Articles 7 and 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Sareen said most applicants merely sought a way to stay abroad, urging the high commissions to scrutinise such cases more thoroughly.

“This is a racket. If people are obtaining refugee status by claiming to support Khalistan, it means their high commissions are not doing their job properly. The easiest excuse is to claim persecution. These countries must ask tougher questions—if they want to create Khalistan, will they do it in Punjab or Auckland?” he asked.

‘Priority is to provide a robust system’

In 2024, Erica Stanford, the immigration minister of New Zealand, called out suspicious asylum seekers and mentioned the same in a cabinet note published in September 2024—a copy of which ThePrint has. 

In the note dated September 2024, she said that asylum claims had increased eight-fold compared to pre-COVID and were now received faster than they could be processed. The result, she added, was a growing backlog of claimants, making “fraudulent or unmeritorious asylum claims a more viable route for individuals seeking to circumvent work visa requirements and stay onshore”.

When asked about the surge in applications from India citing religious persecution and how the department was managing and assessing such applications, Greig Young, head of operations of the refugee status unit in New Zealand, in a written response, said the priority was to provide a “robust and fair system that enables people seeking asylum in New Zealand to have their claims processed as efficiently as possible”.

He pointed out an increase in the number of people seeking protection in many countries, including New Zealand, in recent years. 

Asked if available data indicated that most Indian refugee status applicants cited religious persecution as their reason for filing these claims, he said, “Refugee and protection claims are confidential, and we are unable to provide further detail of the nature of these claims.”

“Refugee and protection claims are made by people who claim to have a well-founded fear of being persecuted in their home country. Many factors could contribute to this—including a fear of religious persecution.  Claimants may also give more than one reason for their claim,” he said.

He said officials closely monitored the number of claims, staying alert for any patterns or signs of the system’s potential misuse and taking action where needed. 

Commenting on the increased volume of refugee and protection claims, he added, “Additional staff have been assisting with processing to ensure that genuine claimants receive the necessary support and any potential misuse of this system is addressed promptly.”

He said all refugee and protection status claims were thoroughly assessed based on individual circumstances, according to New Zealand’s refugee law and relevant international conventions. 

“These include whether there are serious reasons for considering the claimant has committed a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity, a serious non-political crime outside of New Zealand and/or they have been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations,” he said.

(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)