New Delhi:
A plane with 119 Indians arrived from the United States on Saturday at the Amitsar Airport of Punjab, the second such arrival in a period of 10 days, as part of the performance and decision of the Donald Trump government to deport illegal immigrants.
The first round of deportation took place on 5 February, when an American military aircraft transported 104 Indians to Amritsar. A third plane with 157 deportees is expected to land in India on Sunday.
The C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US Air Force landed on Saturday at the Amritsar International Airport on Saturday.
Of the total deportees are 67 from Punjab, 33 from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. The families of some of them reached the airport to receive them.
Earlier the deportees came from Haryana (33), Gujarat (33), Punjab (30), Maharashtra (3) Uttar Pradesh (3) and Chandigarh (2). They were sent back to the same military plane that left San Antonio, Texas.
The deportees were chained and modest during the flight, only to be released on arrival in India – a movement that caused a political storm in India and led to a commotion in both parliament buildings during the then budget session.
In the midst of criticism, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said that the center is busy with the US to ensure that the deportees are not mistreated. He also said that the deportation of illegal Migrants from the US is not a new development and has been going on for years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in the US earlier this week, said that India will take back one of the citizens who live in the US illegally. However, he emphasized that efforts must be made to put an end to human trafficking.
“Our bigger fight is against that entire ecosystem, and we are convinced that President Trump will fully collaborate with India in completing this ecosystem,” he said.
In her defense, the American embassy in India said “maintaining the immigration laws of our nation is crucial for the national security and public safety of the United States”. “It is the policy of the United States to faithfully implement immigration laws against all inadmissible and removable alien beings,” said a spokesperson for the embassy.
India is the third source of immigrants without papers in the US after Mexico and El Salvador.
In the meantime, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann visited the Amritsar airport earlier in the day and said that his government has made arrangements to bring the inhabitants of Punjab of the second party deportees to their hometown.
The deportees who come from other states go from Amritsar to Delhi from Amritsar on Sunday morning and then they are taken to their respective places, he said.
Mr. Mann also attacked the center over the landing of the airport at Amritsar Airport and asked not to make the Holy City a “deport center”.
Most deportees from Punjab said earlier that they wanted to migrate to the US for a better life for their families. However, their dreams were crushed when they were caught on the American border and were sent back in buoys.
