Show caption The MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth has been outspoken in her criticism of the Indian government. Photograph: David Gadd/Sportsphoto/Allstar Labour UK MP and Kashmiri rights campaigner is ‘deported’ from India Labour MP Debbie Abrahams is denied entry into country, with no reason given Kate Proctor Chief political correspondent Mon 17 Feb 2020 13.10 GMT Share on Facebook

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A Labour MP and Kashmiri rights campaigner has said she has been deported from India.

Debbie Abrahams, the MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, who is chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Kashmir, was denied entry to the country on Monday and flown to Dubai.

Officials at Delhi airport told her that her e-visa, which had been issued last October and was valid until October 2020, had been rejected. The trip to India during parliamentary recess was to visit family and friends.

She said: “Along with everyone else, I presented myself at the immigration desk with my documents including my e-visa, had my photograph taken and then the official looked at his screen and started shaking his head. Then he told me my visa was rejected, took my passport, and disappeared for about 10 minutes.

“When he came back he was very rude and aggressive, shouting at me to ‘come with me’. I told him not to speak to me like that and was then taken to a cordoned-off area marked as a deportee cell. He then ordered me to sit down and I refused. I didn’t know what they might do or where else they may take me, so I wanted people to see me.”

Abrahams arrived in Delhi with her aide Harpreet Uppal on an Emirates flight from Dubai at 9am on Monday. After being denied entry she was flown back to the United Arab Emirates and was due to arrive there on Monday afternoon.

She has been an outspoken critic of the Indian government for stripping Kashmir of its semi-autonomy last August, demoting it from a state to a federal territory.

Shortly after the changes to Kashmir’s status were passed by India’s parliament, Abrahams wrote a letter to India’s high commissioner to the UK, saying the action betrayed the trust of the people of Kashmir.

India took more than 20 foreign diplomats on a visit to Kashmir last week, the second such trip organised in the last six months by the Hindu nationalist government led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi.