ICC Note:

A Christian refugee in New Zealand faces a forced return to India despite fears of persecution upon his return. Christian persecution in India has dramatically increased since 2014. This rise in persecution and intolerance coincides with the rise of the Hindu nationalist BJP to India’s central government. Will this Christian be forced to return to India in spite of the potential persecution he could face?

11/26/2016 India (Stuff) – An Indian Christian will be deported from New Zealand despite claiming Hindu extremists in his homeland were threatening to kill him.

The man, an evangelist in his 40s identified only as BD, was arrested and imprisoned in 2012 for overstaying his visa.

He has been fighting his deportation order on humanitarian grounds ever since.

His first claim for refugee status was rejected by the Immigration and Protection Tribunal in 2015.

However, he made a subsequent claim on the basis that a stint in jail had strengthened his Christian faith so much that the preaching he would be compelled to do when back in India would put his life in danger.

That has been rejected in the High Court at Auckland.

In a decision released this week, Justice Peters said the man had initially been rejected as a refugee because his risk of danger would be low if he returned to India, but noted Indian police’s “sometimes lacklustre” response to hostility against Christians, who make up 2.3 per cent of the country’s population.

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