Nearly 4,000 Sikh and Hindu refugees from Afghanistan, who are back due to civil war, are peeved at the lopsided citizenship norms of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. Though 205 Hindu and Sikh refugees from Afghanistan have been granted Indian citizenship, many are unhappy, as their families are still living like refugees.
The refugees have crossed the mandatory stay period of 14 years in the India are tired of living with the ‘Afghani’ tag.
“Though we will not be able to forget Afghanistan, now India is our country and our children have grown up here. But authorities taunt us why don’t we go back to Kabul. It seems that we will never be accepted as Indians,” said 57-year-old Narendra Singh.
Singh is waiting to get Indian citizenship along with his wife, son and daughter-in-law. “Even after living here for so long and being of Indian origin, we are not able to get the basic things to run our life like ration card, voter identity card, driving license etc. My son had to start a small business due to lack of any government job,” he said.
Fifty-six-year-old Ardet Singh’s happiness is almost palpable when he shows the photocopy of the citizenship certificate awarded to him six months back. However, the next moment he is completely blank. After 16 years in India, he still yearns to see his family members as Indian citizen.
Singh applied for an Indian citizenship in 2003 with his wife and two children. Though Singh got the citizenship last year other members in the family are still waiting for the initial police verification by the Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) in Delhi. “I call them almost daily to get the police verification done so that the application can move forward. However, it seems like they have lost the application form,” said Singh.
“We were happily living in Afghanistan with an Indian identity. But after the Taliban came to power we were expelled and we had no other option apart from seeking refuge in India. We hope the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) would do something,” said Ardet.
UNHCR is trying to expedite their cases with the concerned departments. “There are a total of 8,500 Afghan (Hindu and Sikh) refugees but so far only 205 have been granted citizenship. In February, 64 people were awarded citizenship, which is the highest figure in a month so far,” said Nayana Bose, associate external relations officer, UNHCR India.
Bose explained, “Applying for naturalised citizenship is an individual process. A family cannot apply as a group. It is not uncommon that in a family some members become citizens before others do. Each application is treated individually.”
UNHCR recently opened two naturalisation clinics in Vikaspuri and Faridabad.
“In UK, the naturalisation process taken only five years while countries like Sweden, Canada, Belgium, Germany and Ireland requires only three years of stay to accept refugees as their citizens. When we migrated, the mandatory stay period in India was increased from 7 to 10 years. It was again increased to 12 years few years back,” said Manohar Singh from Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society, NGO which is working for the welfare of the refugees.