The treatment of Indian migrants, deported on a U.S. flight, has stirred a hornet’s nest.
The Indian illegal migrants who had entered the United States alleged that they were deported on a military aircraft and were kept handcuffed and shackled throughout the flight.
First, the Indian government tried to downplay the matter, but soon, the U.S. Border Police issued a video that reported Indians were bound and flown on a military plane.
In total, 104 deportees in a U.S. military aircraft landed at the Amritsar Airport, where 19 are women and 13 are children.
These migrants were a product of former President Donald Trump’s stringent immigration policies against illegal migrants.
The aircraft took off two days ahead of schedule, and several in India pondered why the U.S. used military aircraft for deportation instead of commercial aircraft, which costs much less to operate.
It costs about $600 per person to deport with a commercial aircraft, while deportation using a military aircraft exceeds $5,000 per person.
However, yesterday, shocking revelations clarified that this was intentional-keeping the deportees chained up throughout the flight.
A 36-year-old man from Gurdaspur, Punjab, Jaspal Singh, disclosed that handcuffs and shackles were taken off only when they reached Amritsar Airport.
Speaking to Press Trust of India (PTI), he said, “We thought we were being taken to another detention camp, but then an officer informed us that we were being sent back to India.
Our hands and feet were chained, and they were only removed after landing in Amritsar.”
He further disclosed that before deportation, they were detained in the U.S. for 11 days.
India dismissed the reports on Wednesday, stating that the deported nationals from India were not shackled; a viral social media image of the defeated Guatemala migrants, and not Indians.
Jaspal Singh, one of dozens of Indian migrants arrested by the U.S. Border Police on January 24 at the Mexico-U.S. border, stated that a travel agent had deceived him, promising a legal U.S. visa but smuggling him through illegal routes.
For his own journey, he paid INR 3 million ($36,000) against loans.
Harvinder Singh from Punjab, who is another deportee, shares his precarious journey he had undertaken.
He has crossed Qatar, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Panama, and Nicaragua to reach Mexico.
“We crossed mountains, traveled by boat, and nearly drowned in the sea,” he recalled. “In Panama’s forests, I saw a man die, while another drowned in the ocean.”
Another inmate complained that during his illegal passage, clothes worth INR 30,000-35,000 ($360-$420) were stolen from him.
