Indian court tells Yemeni Muslim refugee to ‘go to Pakistan’ after overstaying visa

‘Go to Pakistan’ has become an Islamophobic dog whistle deployed online and in speeches by right-wing nationalists

A court in India reportedly told a Muslim refugee from Yemen to “go to Pakistan” after he overstayed his visa, echoing a crass Islamophobic dog whistle that is more commonly deployed in online debates by Hindu nationalists in the country.

A judge at the Bombay High Court made the remark while hearing a plea by Khaled Gomaeai Mohammad Hasan challenging a “Leave India Notice” issued to him by police in the western Maharashtra state, according to local media reports.

He pleaded for protection from forcible deportation to his home country of Yemen, which has been engaged in an active civil war since 2014, saying it would pose a “threat to his life” and the lives of his wife and children, Indian legal website Live Law reported.

Yemen was plunged into conflict a decade ago when Houthi rebels descended from their northern stronghold and seized the capital Sanaa as well as much of the north of the country, forcing the government into exile.

A Gulf coalition led by Saudi Arabia and supported by Western nations intervened in 2015 to restore the previous administration, leading to a war that has so far left over 150,000 people dead and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

Mr Hasan arrived in India in March 2014 on a student visa and his wife followed in 2015. After their visas expired, the couple were issued refugee cards by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

Yet in February this year, they received a police notice ordering them to leave the country.

Mr Hasan said he is applying to move to Australia. Seeking permission to stay in India until his visa for Australia came through, he told the high court that his “proposed deportation was contrary to the international customary laws and the Indian constitution as it violated basic human rights”, Live Law reported.

The judges responded by telling Mr Hasan to go and seek refuge in Pakistan, India’s Muslim majority neighbour with which it shares frosty ties. Mr Hasan is not understood to have any connection to that country.

“Go to Pakistan” is an Islamophobic dog whistle frequently used by India’s Hindu nationalists against Muslims and critics of the Narendra Modi government.

“You can go to Pakistan, which is in the neighbourhood. Or you can go to any Gulf country. Do not take undue advantage of India’s liberal attitude,” Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan told him according to Live Law.

The judges concluded the hearing by granting Mr Hasan and his family a 15-day temporary protection against forcible deportation while they sought clarity about the nationality of their daughter born in India.