An asylum-seeker’s false claim to being a persecuted Tibetan freedom fighter was exposed when authorities checked his Facebook profile.
The young man, who arrived in Australia using an Indian passport in 2009, claimed he was from a family of Tibetan activists forced to flee Chinese rule in 1991.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he was raised and educated in a Nepalese refugee camp but had been driven out by the nation’s Maoist government, which had allegedly imprisoned, starved and beaten him.
“If I return to Nepal . . . I fear I will be handed over to the Chinese authorities in Tibet,” he told the Refugee Review Tribunal.
“If this happens the Chinese army will torture me to death.”
But his story unravelled when the tribunal began quizzing him about his Facebook profile, on which he admitted attending a school in the Indian state of West Bengal, not Nepal.
On another social media site, hi5, the asylum-seeker had uploaded photographs of himself wearing the Indian school’s uniform and posing with classmates.
When confronted with the images, the man explained he attended a school with an identical name and uniform in Nepal. The tribunal found no evidence such a school existed.
Another photograph showed the man and his sister posing in their school uniforms at a park in West Bengal, with an Indian landmark clearly visible in the background.
“When it was put to him that the (park) captured in the photograph is in (India), he insisted that there is a (park of the same name) in Nepal,” the tribunal said in its decision on 8 March.
In rejecting the man’s asylum claim, the tribunal labelled his implausible explanations “far-fetched and patently deceitful”.
“On the basis of the information posted by the applicant on various social networking sites, the tribunal finds that, contrary to his assertions throughout the process, the applicant has resided and completed his secondary schooling in . . . West Bengal,” it said. “The tribunal finds that the applicant is Indian born, he is an Indian national and holds a valid Indian passport. . . He is not a refugee.”
Among other evidence considered by the tribunal were notes from an interview with the man’s wife, who believed her husband was an Indian citizen. He explained at the time he met his wife he had already purchased the “false” Indian passport and proceeded to lie to her.
The asylum-seeker also produced a letter purportedly from a Tibetan Youth Congress leader in Kathmandu describing his commitment to their organization. However, the tribunal discovered the leader resigned from the congress in 1997.
“The tribunal further finds that the letter is fraudulent and has been falsely manufactured by the applicant for the purpose of achieving an immigration benefit”
IF YOU ARE A TIBETAN SEEKING ASYLUM IN THE UNITED STATES YOU MAY BE FOUND "FRIVOLOUS" or "FRAUDULENT" BY THE IMMIGRATION AUTHORITIES AND FOREVER BARRED FROM SEEKING ANY IMMIGRATION STATUS IN THE UNITED STATES. PLEASE DO NOT COPY THE AFFIDAVITS AND BACKGROUND DETAILS OF PERSECUTION FROM YOUR FELLOW FRIENDS AND FROM NON LAWYERS OR FROM LAWYERS WHO USE BOILER PLATE STORIES TO FILE FAKE ASYLUM CLAIMS FOR TIBETANS. PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT ANY FALSE DOCUMENTS. NOT ONLY IT IS A CRIME, IT HURTS AND AS WELL AS OTHER HONEST, ELIGIBLE TIBETANS WHO TRULY ARE PERSECUTED IN CHINESE OCCUPIED TIBET AND WHO SEEK ASYLUM IN THE UNITED STATES. YOU CAN STILL WIN BY TELLING THE TRUTH.
FOR EXPERT ADVICE AND CASE HANDLING CONTACT THE PIONEER OF TIBETAN ASYLUM...ATTORNEY HUMA KAMGAR IN NEW YORK.
LAW OFFICE OF HUMA KAMGAR
305 BROADWAY, STE 1400, NEW YORK, NY 10007
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