Public Donations Free Kerala Migrant Worker from Saudi Death Row. Where Was the State?
Abdul Rahim, a Keralite migrant worker who had been on death row in Saudi Arabia, returned home on May 28 after nearly 20 years in prison, freed only after a community fundraising campaign collected 340 million (34 crore) rupees in blood money. The case exposes how completely a migrant worker’s life can come to depend on a foreign legal system that their family cannot navigate, and how the resilience of Kerala’s diaspora networks, genuine as it is, has come to substitute for protections the state was never equipped to provide.
Sex Ratio Among British Indians Worse Than in India
A U.K. government-commissioned study has found a skewed male-to-female birth ratio among Indian-origin families that exceeds even India’s national figures. This indicates that migrant Indian communities in Britain have retained, and in some cases reinforced, patriarchal cultural norms favouring sons over daughters.
$100,000 US Visa Fee Could Block Indian Talent. What Comes Next?
The U.S. has introduced a $100,000 fee for every H-1B visa, making it far too costly for most companies to hire Indian professionals. This puts at risk the kinds of jobs that once built careers, brought in foreign income and helped Indian firms deliver global projects. So, what we see here is that India has spent years building a workforce geared for international jobs, yet access to those jobs still depends on rules set by other countries. Could India have done more to prepare for this?
Assam Evictions Demand Relief, Not Interstate Surveillance of the Displaced
The Assam government has launched extensive eviction drives across Dhubri and Goalpara districts, targeting those it labels as “encroachers” and “illegal migrants,” prompting alerts from neighbouring states concerned about possible cross-border movement. The development is being portrayed by the state as a routine law and order measure, but it raises serious questions about whether the evictions are legally justified, whether due process has been followed and whether the government is fulfilling its duty to prevent avoidable harm to people.
Outmigration from Bhutan Reaches Critical Levels
An estimated 66,000 Bhutanese now live abroad, with a significant majority in Australia. For a small Himalayan country of just over 765,000 people, this figure translates to nearly 9 percent of the population—and likely a much larger share of the country’s young, working-age citizens.
States Asked to Identify ‘Illegal’ Immigrants, Without Deportation Mechanism
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has reportedly issued a new directive to states and Union Territories, setting a 30-day deadline to verify the citizenship status of “suspected” undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar. This move is likely to create bureaucratic bottlenecks and trigger long-term humanitarian and geopolitical complications with no resolution mechanism in sight.
India’s Alleged Secret ‘Rendition’ of Rohingya Refugees
Indian authorities have allegedly “abandoned”—rather than deported—40 Rohingya refugees in international waters near the Myanmar maritime border, forcing women, children and the elderly to swim to safety using life jackets. The action could be seen as a “secret rendition,” a term used to describe the covert transfer of individuals across borders without legal process.
Assam’s NRC Misstep: Court Demands Deportation of ‘Illegal Foreign Nationals’
The Supreme Court has rebuked the Assam government for keeping people it has declared as “foreigners” in indefinite detention and for its slow pace in arranging their deportation. State officials claim they do not know where to send them. It exposes a fundamental problem rooted in the National Register of Citizens (NRC): if individuals are declared foreign solely because their documents are considered insufficient, what happens next?