119 Indian migrants deported from US to arrive in Amritsar on Feb 15, 16
Two flights are scheduled to land at the Guru Ram Dass International Airport in Amritsar on February 15 and February 16.
Two flights carrying 119 Indian migrants deported from the US are expected to arrive at the Guru Ram Dass International Airport in Amritsar on February 15 and February 16.
Both flights are scheduled to land at 10.05pm on February 15 and February 16, officials, on condition of anonymity, told Hindustan Times.
Most of the deportees on the flights are from Punjab (67). They are followed by people from Haryana (33), Gujarat (8), Uttar Pradesh (3), Maharashtra (2), Goa (2), Rajasthan (2) and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, according to PTI.
The deportees scheduled to reach India include people who had entered the United States through Mexico and other routes. They also allegedly tore up their passports immediately after entering the US illegally, according to the officials.
The flights to Amritsar make the second tranche of people returning amid an unprecedented crackdown on people entering the US illegally by the Donald Trump administration.
First flight landed on February 5
Earlier, a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal immigrants from various states had landed in Punjab's Amritsar on February 5.
Also Read | Deportees narrate tales of harrowing journey from US
Of them, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.
Some deportees claimed that their hands and legs were cuffed throughout the journey and they were unshackled only after landing in Amritsar.
This triggered nationwide outrage, with the opposition demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi to raise the issue with the US during his visit to Washington.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had alleged that the Indian migrants were treated “even worse than garbage”.
After a widespread outcry in India, New Delhi had conveyed its concerns to Washington about the treatment of deportees.
The deportations and the harrowing experiences of Indian deportees had also led the police in Punjab and Haryana to launch a crackdown against dubious travel agents who take huge sums of money and aid the illegal migration of Indians to the US.