The 116 undocumented Indian migrants, who were onboard the U.S. plane that landed at Punjab’s Amritsar International Airport on Saturday night (February 15, 2025) were handcuffed and chained during the travel as they were deported from the United States.
Talking to media persons in Hoshiarpur, Daljit Singh, one of the deportees, asserted that on their way to Amritsar from the U.S. the deportees were “handcuffed with their legs chained” in the aircraft. The second group of 116 Indian citizens was deported from the United States in the C-17 aircraft after U.S. President Donald Trump recently started a crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Also read | Punjab ministers meet illegal Indian immigrants who were deported from US to Amritsar
Earlier, on February 5, a U.S. military plane brought as many as 104 illegal immigrants, in handcuffs and chains, to Amritsar, inviting sharp criticism from several quarters.
“We were handcuffed and our legs were chained during the journey,” said Mr. Singh in Hoshiarpur on Sunday. Mr. Singh hails from Kurala Kalan village in Hoshiarpur district and was among 116 illegal deportees, who arrived at Amritsar airport.
He added he was duped by a travel agent, who instead of directly taking him to the U.S. resorted to the ‘Dunki/Donkey’ route to illegally enter the United States. Sources said the women on the flight were not handcuffed or chained this time along, unlike the previous deportation flight to Amritsar.
After the first batch of deportees arrived, the Opposition had cornered the BJP-led government at the Centre on the issue of deportation, questioning why migrants were “deported in shackles”. On February 15, ahead of the second flight from the U.S., senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member P. Chidambaram took to ‘X’ to target the Union government. “All eyes will be on the U.S. aircraft which will land today in Amritsar bringing back illegal immigrants. Will the deportees be handcuffed and their legs tied with ropes? It is a test for Indian diplomacy,” he said in his post.
According to officials, in the special flight from the United States, of the 116 deportees, 65 are from Punjab, 33 from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, two each from Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Another plane carrying more deportees is expected to arrive on February 16 as well.
The deportees, after immigration and background checks, who were from Punjab were taken to their homes in police vehicles. The Haryana government also made transportation arrangements for the deportees from the state.
Punjab Police though arrested two youths, hailing from Rajpura in Patiala district, who were among deportees in connection with a murder case. Patiala’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Nanak Singh said Police have arrested Sandeep Singh and Pradeep Singh, as they were wanted in a murder case of 2023.
A large number of people, especially youth from Punjab, travel abroad in the hope of a better life. As the migration trend continues to grow, the phenomenon of illegal-irregular migration has also turned to considerable magnitude. The magnitude of irregular migration from Punjab is “substantial”, but there’s hardly any authentic data surrounding irregular migrants in the public domain.
Punjab Police has set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the illegal human trafficking and illegal migration after the deportation of 104 migrants from the U.S.
