Bula Devi reports from New Delhi
On Sunday a US military plane with 112 Indian deportees, chained and handcuffed, landed at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport soon after 10pm.
Of the 112, deportees from Haryana were 44, Gujarat 33, Punjab 31 and Uttar Pradesh 2 and 1 each from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. There were women and children also, only grace was they were not shackled or handcuffed.
This was the third such flight bringing deportees as part of a massive crackdown by the Donald Trump 2.0 administration against illegal immigrants.
It is reported that of the 112 deportees, there were 19 women and 14 minors, including two infants. The third batch of deportees landed in Amritsar within 24 hours of the second batch.
Following the arrival of the first batch of deportees handcuffed and chained on February 5, New Delhi said it would urge the US for humane treatment.
On February 5, the sight of undocumented Indian nationals, handcuffed and chained, while being deported shocked the nation. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made a suo moto statement in Parliament Budget session the next day.
He informed Parliament that the deportation of illegal migrants was not a new development, and the use of restraints on the deportees was a “standard operating procedure (SOP)”.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, he assured the opposition that India was engaging the Trump administration to ensure that the returning deportees are not mistreated in any manner.
“The deportations by the US are organised and executed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The SOP for deportations by aircraft, effective from 2012, provides for the use of restraint. We have been informed by ICE that women and children are not restrained,” Jaishankar said.
Opposition parties were quick to question the government on the issue. They asked whether India knew that the deportees would be sent back handcuffed and chained and if they knew, did the government raise the issue with the US administration.
External Affairs Minister Jaishankar was in the US for Donald Trump’s oath taking ceremony on January 20 which was close to the date of the first batch of deportation. The Opposition asked whether India requested the US administration for alternate arrangements and they also asked if a country like Cambodia could send their own aircraft to bring back their respective deportees, whether India suggested a similar alternative to the US administration and if not, why not.
Speaking to reporters, Congress MP and chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs Shashi Tharoor said the Trump administration’s move to deport the Indian nationals in “handcuffs” was an insult to the country. “We are protesting the way in which this was done. They have every legal right to deport people who are illegally in their country…but to send them like this abruptly in a military aircraft and in handcuffs is an insult to India, it’s an insult to the dignity of Indians,” said Tharoor.
But, if at all President Trump left any elbow space to let India to raise the issue, clearly there was no breakthrough. Despite Prime Minister Modi’s White House visit on February 12-13, the US has deported more Indians in shackles. In fact, it is said that the Sikh returnees were deprived of their turbans also
