Five illegal Sikh migrants freed

Washington, August 23

Five illegal Sikh migrants are among eight asylum seekers who have been released on bond from a prison in the US state of Oregon where they were locked up for three months after getting caught in the Trump administration’s controversial “zero-tolerance” policy, immigration lawyers have said.

A group of 52 Indians, mostly Sikhs, has been held at a detention centre in Oregon since May for being part of a large contingent of 124 illegal immigrants seeking asylum.

Five migrants, all in their twenties from India, made their first public appearance on Wednesday after nearly three months at the Oregon prison put them in the centre of a political firestorm.

“In the beginning, I had no hope,” Karandeep Singh, 24, was quoted as saying by Oregon Live. “Now it’s like a dream. I’m so happy. Thank you, all of the people who have helped us.”

Many of the Indians are practising Sikhs, a designation they claim subjects them to religious and political persecution in their native land. It also presented problems inside the Sheridan prison, where they were prevented from following some basic Sikh practices, the report said. “I don’t blame the prison officials,” Karandeep said. “They probably didn’t know how Sikhs pray.”     Those early days had been bleak, the migrants said.

“We were seriously depressed,” said Lovpreet Singh, 22, through an interpreter. “We couldn’t get out of our cells at all, let alone use the phone to call our families. Even the prison officials didn’t know who we were. How were our families supposed to help us when they don’t know where we are?”

More are expected to be released in the coming days, Victoria Bejarano-Muirhead, with the Innovation Law Lab, said. The initial group of men sent to the federal prison at Sheridan came from 16 countries, which include India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

After hearings determine the asylum seekers have a credible fear of being repatriated, they are eligible for release while their asylum applications are processed. The bond amounts typically run from $1,500-5,000 and are usually put up by family or friends, Muirhead said. — PTI