{"id":430037,"date":"2026-05-16T04:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430037\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T04:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:08:12","slug":"indian-man-attacked-with-sickle-in-land-feud-denied-refugee-status-in-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430037\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian man \u2018attacked with sickle\u2019 in land feud denied refugee status in New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"

However, his argument did not hold sway with the NZ Immigration and Protection Tribunal<\/a>, which last month declined his appeal against an earlier decision declining his application for refugee status or protected person status.<\/p>\n

After detailed consideration, the tribunal was satisfied that the risk to the appellant of serious harm arising from breaches of human rights in India was no more than \u201cspeculative and remote\u201d. <\/p>\n

Irrigation dispute turned violent<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old, whose name was redacted from the decision, was from a village in northern India. <\/p>\n

He arrived in New Zealand<\/a> in recent years, though neither his lawyer nor Government officials would say on what grounds he arrived.<\/p>\n

According to information presented to the tribunal, the irrigation dispute between neighbouring families began in 2006. <\/p>\n

He claimed members of the neighbouring family went to his family farm and beat his father and other family members to the point at which they needed hospital treatment.<\/p>\n

\"NZNZ immigration authorities have found an Indian man who feared persecution if forced to return did not meet the legal threshold of being deemed a refugee. Photo \/ 123rf<\/p>\n

The neighbours then lodged legal action against his family, and the conflict escalated, tribunal member Bruce Burson said.<\/p>\n

The man claimed he and his mother were attacked inside their home, triggering a decline in her mental health<\/a> and, ultimately, her death from heart failure.<\/p>\n

He believed she died because of stress caused by the conflict.<\/p>\n

One day, as he was walking home, the man claimed he was stopped on the road by the neighbour, and suspended from a tree branch with a rope tied around his neck. <\/p>\n

He was saved by a passerby.<\/p>\n

The man claimed the sickle attack happened several years later, when he was slashed in the head. <\/p>\n

Tribunal questions breach of rights<\/p>\n

A resident in the man\u2019s village confirmed seeing the attack and was also aware of the hanging incident, but two other witnesses had since died, the tribunal was told.<\/p>\n

The neighbour was committed to a mental health facility, from which he later escaped, the man claimed.<\/p>\n

The tribunal said that, based on the information it had, it accepted that the man had in the past suffered serious harm, including that the neighbour had tried to hang him, and later attacked him with a sickle.<\/p>\n

However, the action of a private individual, and not a state agent, did not of itself evidence breach of a right, which was \u201cparticularly relevant\u201d to the appeal, Burson said.<\/p>\n

The man claimed that, since being in New Zealand, the neighbour had continued to \u201ctease and harm\u201d his father, including hitting him with a car while he was riding his bike, which resulted in hospital care.<\/p>\n

It was also claimed that, recently, the neighbour had \u201cforcefully entered\u201d the man\u2019s family home with weapons, and threatened that he would kill him if found.<\/p>\n

It was on this basis that he felt New Zealand should protect him.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor reasons which are not clear, there seems to have been something of an upswing in incidents since the appellant has come to New Zealand,\u201d Burson said.<\/p>\n

No evidence of police involvement<\/p>\n

He said there was no evidence that any protection had been sought from the police, and the only court proceedings on file related to a judgment given against the appellant\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

They related to a complaint brought against him and others by the neighbour for \u201cillegally diverting water\u201d and assaulting him with a spade.<\/p>\n

The tribunal considered the appeal was manifestly unfounded or \u201cclearly abusive\u201d, and that the appellant had had \u201cmultiple occasions\u201d on which to advance and explain his claim. <\/p>\n

It also found his fears of cross-border skirmishes were linked to a single incident in 2023, when there was a crossfire encounter between the Indian army and militants near his home. <\/p>\n

\u201cNone of this is to deny that the conflict may impact upon the appellant\u2019s life and sense of security,\u201d Burson said. <\/p>\n

Fear of persecution \u2018not established\u2019<\/p>\n

Burson said that, in this instance, the tribunal identified the basic principles of refugee and protection law that applied in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

To establish a real chance of being persecuted, it was the responsibility of the claimant to point to evidence indicating a real chance of serious harm arising from breaches of internationally recognised human rights. <\/p>\n

The tribunal was satisfied that the appellant could live elsewhere in India, other than around his village, and the risk of serious harm arising from breaches of human rights in India was no more than speculative and remote. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor this reason, he does not have a well-founded fear of being persecuted in India,\u201d Burson said, finding that the man was not entitled to be recognised by law as a refugee.<\/p>\n

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ\u2019s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"However, his argument did not hold sway with the NZ Immigration and Protection Tribunal, which last month declined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1344,682,2562,1403,15159,13731,2109,10113,15124,71,220309,305,106,78,5501,47501,19720,5158,16122,117,111,43,139,69,1523,32260,90263,188354,78456,44093,107,15981,102,80],"class_list":["post-430037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-attacked","tag-being","tag-claims","tag-defence","tag-denied","tag-dispute","tag-family","tag-feud","tag-fight","tag-from","tag-hanged","tag-have","tag-head","tag-in","tag-indian","tag-irrigation","tag-land","tag-man","tag-mans","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-proved","tag-refugee","tag-sickle","tag-slashed","tag-status","tag-then","tag-tree","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}