A Federal Court in Canada has upheld the decision to deny an asylum claim from an Indian couple, Amandeep Singh and Kanwaldeep Kaur. The court ruled that their argument—that they would face persecution in India due to their pro-Khalistan activities in Canada—was “disingenuous.”
A Shifting Narrative
The couple, who arrived in Canada in 2018 on a temporary visa, initially based their asylum claim on alleged harassment and assault by a neighbor and police in India. However, during the hearing, they amended their application, claiming they had become supporters of the Khalistan movement while in Canada and would face persecution for it. They submitted photos from protests and “voter registration cards” from the separatist group Sikhs for Justice as evidence.
Both the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) and the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) of the Refugee Board of Canada found the new claim to be insincere. The RPD stated that the timing of their involvement in the movement “underscored a lack of genuineness,” a finding that the RAD and now the Federal Court have agreed with.
Claims of Persecution Questioned
The court also questioned the couple’s original claims of harassment in India. The judge, Benoit M. Duchesne, found no reason to interfere with the earlier decisions and ruled that the applicants had not established that the denial of their claim was unreasonable.
An immigration consultant commented that fraudulent claims are “clogging the system in Canada” and making it difficult for people with genuine threats of persecution to be heard. The case highlights the scrutiny that asylum applications related to the Khalistan movement often face in Canada.