Anti-CAA protests: Norwegian national claims asked to leave India for violating visa norms

After being found to have participated in an anti-CAA protest held in Kerala recently, woman tourist from Norway Janne-Mette Johansson claimed in a Facebook post that she has been directed by the Bureau of Immigration authorities to leave the country at once. She disclosed that an officer from the Bureau of Immigration “showed up” at her hotel and would not leave until she bought a flight ticket home.

The woman tourist said that she would soon reach the airport from where she would board a connecting flight to Sweden. “A couple of hours back the Bureau of Immigration showed up at my hotel again. I was told to leave the country at once, or legal actions would be taken,” Janne-Mette Johansson said in her Facebook post.

The 71-year-old woman settled in Sweden said when she sought an explanation or something in writing, the authorities informed her that she would not get anything in writing.

“I asked for an explanation and also something in writing. I was told I would not get anything in writing. The officer from the Bureau is not leaving me before he can see that I have a flight ticket. Now pretty soon on my way to the airport. A friend fixing a flight ticket to Dubai and from there catching a flight back home to Sweden,” she said.

The Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO) under the Union Home Ministry has confirmed that the tourist was asked to leave the country for visa violation.

Janne-Mette Johansson had come under the scanner of immigration authorities with a Facebook post on December 23 in which she had admitted her participation in the “Peoples Long March” against the CAA. She also shared photos that showed her holding up a protest poster.

Earlier, Jakob Lindenthal, a German post-graduate student of Physics at IIT Madras, flew to Amsterdam after he was asked to leave the country on similar grounds over his participation in the protests against the amended anti-citizenship law and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Chennai. Jakob Lindenthal was studying at the IIT as part of a one-year exchange programme.

Massive violent protests have swept the country after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was passed by the Parliament and got President’s nod. Activists, students, leaders of opposition parties and other protesters came out on roads against the legislation. The amended citizenship law seeks to grant citizenship to six “persecuted” communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Source: Financial Express