Norwegian tourist who took part in anti-CAA protest in Kochi asked to leave

A Norwegian woman tourist has been asked to leave the country after she was found to have participated in an anti-CAA protest in Kochi early this week, violating visa norms, a senior official said on Friday. "Our enquiry found that she has violated visa norms and so she was asked to go back," Anoop Krishnan, Officer in the Foreigners Regional Registration Office said.

The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) had said that it was probing the matter after it came to know through the social media that the Norwegian woman allegedly participated in the protest against Citizenship Amendment Act on December 23. Janne-Mette Johansson said in a Facebook post that she has been directed by the Bureau of Immigration Authorities, who again came to her hotel, to leave the country at once.

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'I was told to leave the country at once'

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. She said her friend was arranging a flight ticket to Dubai, from where she would catch a flight back home to Sweden.

"I was told to leave the country at once, or legal action would be taken. The officer from the Bureau is not leaving me before he can see that I have a flight ticket", she said.

The woman, in India on a tourist visa, had come under the scanner of Bureau of Immigration authorities over her participation in an anti-CAA protest in the city on December 23. Johansson had reportedly said in a Facebook post that she had participated in the "Peoples Long March" against the CAA.

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German Student Asked To Leave India

Earlier on December 24, a 24-year-old German exchange student claimed that Indian Immigration authorities asked him to leave the country after he took part in the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in the country. Jakob Lindenthal who had come to India to pursue a master’s degree in physics legally violated the conditions of his student visa due to his “political activities outside the campus”. The German was a part of two rallies in Chennai against the CAA where he held banners and signs which compared the Indian situation after passing of CAA to Nazi Germany.  

Lindenthal in the Chennai rally was photographed holding a sign which read, “1933-1945 We have been there” which went viral over social media. When Lindenthal was summoned by the Immigration authorities, he was asked by the authorities to express his dissent and views on the issue. 

“I think nobody can claim that I was just there to exploit my student visa to go on anti-government demonstrations and harm the country’s integrity or something. But that was how they presented it to me,” said Lindenthal, who spoke to Reuters from New Delhi. 

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(With agency input)