FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@sikhcoalition.org
Afghan Sikh Family Secures Asylum in United States
June 5, 2024 (New York, NY) — In August 2022, the Sikh Coalition was proud to join partners around the world in facilitating the safe arrival of a multigenerational Afghan Sikh family in New York through the United States Significant Public Benefit Parole Program. We are pleased to announce that after more than a year and a half of collaborative efforts between the Sikh Coalition and Singh Ahluwalia Attorneys at Law, all 13 members of this family have been granted asylum in the United States.
“My family and I are so very thankful for the overwhelming support we have received from the community since our arrival here, both within the Long Island sangat and across the United States,” said family representative Kulwinder Singh Soni. “We extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who made our journey possible, and we can now look to the future as we build our lives here with security and opportunity for each of us.”
“The trauma and loss this family has endured, and the perseverance they’ve displayed in the years since, is on a level few of us can understand,” continued Deepak Ahluwalia, the family’s primary attorney. “Their cases for asylum were eminently clear to our team, and ultimately to the U.S. government—the slow pace at which they moved through the system, however, highlights our collective need to do more for families who are simply looking for the sense of stability that we all fundamentally seek.”
Joining with Kulwinder’s family, the Sikh Coalition wishes to thank the entire network of individuals and organizations who provided legal, financial, advocacy, community, and logistical support that made this achievement possible. Those parties include but are not limited to: Paramjit Singh Bedi and the management and sangat of Guru Nanak Darbar of Long Island; Deepak Ahluwalia and the legal team at Singh Ahluwalia Attorneys at Law; Mandeep Singh and the Dasvandh Network; the World Sikh Organization; the Bhullar Foundation; the trustees and committee members of Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar Southall, London; the sevadaars of My Family, My Responsibility, in particular the late Dalip Singh Sethi ji; former Sikh Coalition staff who dedicated hours of work to this campaign; and various government points of contact in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and India.
“We are so pleased to see this family fully and safely resettled to the United States, and we hope that many others can follow in their path,” said Harman Singh, Sikh Coalition Executive Director. “The Sikh Coalition continues to believe that the U.S. government has the capacity to resettle the Afghan Sikh and Hindu community in the same way that our country has shown it can do for Ukrainian refugees and others in similarly urgent need around the world. The choices we make about how to help these and other vulnerable populations are not just a matter of policy—they speak to who we are as a nation.”
For more than three years, the Sikh Coalition has remained in a sustained advocacy campaign alongside allied organizations, elected officials, and community members in support of resettling Afghan Sikhs and Hindus to the United States, given the urgent danger they face in Afghanistan and the lack of stability and opportunity available to them in India (where many have been temporarily relocated). As part of that ongoing work and our efforts to share this family’s story, we co-produced a multipart documentary titled Baywatana: Without a Home along with the Sikh students of Nishkam TV. This documentary previously premiered at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, IL; for more information, click here and here.
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The Sikh Coalition is the largest Sikh civil rights organization in the United States. For more information about our work on behalf of this family and all Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, please contact media@sikhcoalition.org.
