The 104 Indians deported from the US were “handcuffed and their legs were chained” during their long fight back home. They were sent back in a US military C-17 Globemaster aircraft and not a chartered flight, making it the first known instance of the US deploying a military aircraft to send deported immigrants from India back home.
The deportees claim they were shackled throughout the flight. However, top sources have contradicted their version, stating they were not handcuffed.
The flight landed in Punjab’s Amritsar Wednesday afternoon, grounding the ‘American dream’ of those onboard. Out of the 104 repatriated Indians, 99 are from Haryana, Gujarat and Punjab.
The arrivals in Amritsar included 25 women and 13 children. The state-wise break-up based on multiple reports is: Haryana 35, Gujarat 33, Punjab 31, three from UP and 2 from Maharashtra, TOI reported.
“Some of them said barring the kids, they were made to wear handcuffs during the flight. I can’t confirm it, though,” a Punjab government official told TOI.
VIDEO | One of the deported Indian immigrants, Harvinder Singh from Punjab’s Hoshiarpur, returns home.
A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal immigrants from various states landed in Amritsar earlier today, the first such batch of Indians deported by the Trump government as… pic.twitter.com/5LbWyylseM
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 5, 2025
The Union government has not ruled out more deportation flights from the US. The administration said that all repatriated citizens whose antecedents had been verified would be “accepted back”.
Asked why a military aircraft was used to send deported immigrants from India back home, a US embassy spokesperson only said the military was supporting the new Trump administration’s efforts to expedite the removal of illegal migrants globally. When illegal Indian immigrants were last deported in Oct 2024, US authorities had used a charter flight.
Several of the deportees were picked up “at the US-Mexico border about 10 days ago”. Some said they travelled to the US from the UK.