Greenpeace Activist Denied Entry to India

Greenpeace International’s crisis response campaigner Aaron Gray-Block was denied entry into India on Saturday after his name figured in the Home Ministry’s “blacklist,” the Press Trust of India reports.

Gray was reportedly put on a flight to Kuala Lumpur without further explanation.

“Our colleague has a valid business visa, and yet he was prevented from entering India with no reason given,” Divya Raghunandan, program director of Greenpeace India, told PTI. “We are forced to wonder if all international staff of Greenpeace will now be prevented from entering the country?”

In January, Greenpeace India activist Priya Pillai was offloaded from a flight bound for London where she was supposed to address British parliamentarians and discuss alleged human rights violations in India by a British fuel company.

The latest move is set to intensify the tussle between the Indian government and Greenpeace India, which has had some of its bank accounts frozen after a leaked Intelligence Bureau report claimed that Greenpeace India was a threat to national interests and economic development. The Delhi High Court has since allowed the group to operate two of its domestic bank accounts.

[PTI]