Canada denies entry to retired Indian police officer over 'human rights violations'

Canada said ex-policeman served a force which committed widespread, systemic human rights abuses, and sexual assault

Canada has barred a former high-ranking Indian police officer  from entering the country.

Immigration authorities denied entry to Tejinder Singh Dhillon, who served at Central Reserve Police Force in 2010, as they considered him to have served a state involved in "terrorism, systematic or gross human rights violation, or genocide".

Dhillon was restricted to enter Canada under a subsection of Immigration and Refugee Protection Act which was passed last week in the country. Canadian authorities said in a statement that Dhillon had worked in force which has “committed widespread and systemic human rights abuses, for example torture, arbitrary detention, murder and sexual assault”.



India has said will take up the matter with the Canadian government. Canada’s high commissioner to India said in a statement, “We regret any inconvenience that may have been experienced by this individual and their family.” The envoy further said, “Form letters in use by the Government of Canada include generic language taken from Canada’s legislation. In this case, the language does not reflect the Government of Canada’s policy toward India or any particular organization, including the Central Reserve Police Force of India.”

He added that oversights on visa application do happen as Canada accepts a high number of Indian nationals.



Dhillon recounted this episode as an ordeal and said the officers behaved in an “unreasonable and indecent manner”, accusing him of committing human rights violations while working with the CRPF. “This is really uncalled for, accusing a person without a shred of evidence. This is something serious for the government of Canada to think about. Has the government decided India is a sponsor of terrorism? That India commits genocide?” he asked.

“This is injustice, a very great humiliation. I’m very perturbed by this,” he added.

The article originally appeared on Hindustan Times.