Deportation from US will be death for me: Kairi

It is a legal matter in the US and the government of India cannot interfere in it, say officials in ministry of external affairs. Chetan Chauhan reports. What next?

Updated on: May 25, 2012, 01:50:16 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Even as the government is pondering on how to help Indian-born global orphan Kairi Shepherd, she claims her deportation from US will amount to “death sentence”.

In the first statement after a US court allowed the Utah province government to deport her, Shepherd said deportation may force her to part with her physicians, family and friends. “And, could be death sentence to me,” read her emotional appeal.

It is because Kairi is suffering from multiple sclerosis, which affects brain and spinal cord. There is no known cure for multiple sclerosis and its have to be treated depending on the intensity of the attack.

Kairi’s present predicament is primarily because her late mother Erlene Shepherd failed to apply for her citizenship before dying when Kairi was eight. She, however, missed the automatic residence under the Citizenship Act of 2000 by few months as she crossed the eligible age of 21.

In between, she had been convicted of forging cheques to pay for her drug habit.

“I have paid publicly for the crimes, which I have committed and which have resulted in the order of deportation,” she said, adding she has taken responsibility for wrongs.

Kairi also negated the claims that she was hiding from immigration enforcement authorities saying it was not possible considering her health condition.

“Yes, I am afraid of being deported. Who wouldn't be in my condition? But, I have never been in hiding or concealed my whereabouts,” the statement read.

Expecting that ministry of external affairs will resist her deportation as she was adopted from a Kolkata orphanage 30 years ago, Kairi believes that the ministry may deny issuance of her travel documents, thereby preventing deportation.

Government sources in New Delhi, however, said they have not decided on the course of action to help Kairi.

“It is a legal matter in US and the government of India cannot interfere in it,” an official said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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