12 more US deportees sent back, land in Delhi

A batch of 12 Indians deported from the US, and taken to Panama, arrived back in the country on Sunday, officials and reports said, but added that unlike in previous instances of American military transport being used, these people flew back in commercial flights.

This is the first instance of Indians deported from the US to a third country since president Donald Trump returned to power with a hardened anti-immigration agenda. On Friday, Indian authorities stated that they had begun verifying the nationality of 50 people presumed to be Indians who were part of a group of 299 migrants deported by US to Panama in recent days. It is not clear if the 12 were part of the same group.

“The deported illegal immigrants from the US via Panama came on Turkish Airlines flight 4651. The flight reached Delhi via Istanbul on Sunday at around 4.40 am,” said an airport official, on condition of anonymity.

Panama and Costa Rica are among the Central American countries that are collaborating with the US to repatriate deported migrants.

Among the deportees were four from Punjab, who reached Amritsar later on Sunday, people familiar with the matter added.

Confirming their arrival, Amritsar deputy commissioner Sakshi Sawhney said they hailed from Gurdaspur, Patiala and Jalandhar districts.

They arrived at the Sri Guru Ramdas Jee International Airport here from Delhi via a commercial flight, she added.

While Harpreet Singh and Maninder Dutt are from Gurdaspur, Jugraj Singh hails from Jalandhar and Jatinder Singh is from Nabha in Patiala district.

Earlier, three batches of illegal Indian immigrants were brought back from the US in a military aircraft on February 5, 15 and 16 amid a crackdown by the Donald Trump government against illegal immigrants.

Many people from Punjab and other states, who entered the US through “donkey routes” — an illegal and risky pathway used by migrants to enter America or other illegal means by spending lakhs of rupees — are now facing deportation.

The landing of US military aircraft carrying illegal Indian immigrants at the Amritsar airport had triggered sharp reactions from several political leaders in Punjab.

Chief minister Bhagwant Mann had questioned the Centre’s move to land planes bringing deportees at Amritsar airport, accusing it of trying to defame Punjab under a conspiracy.

Mann had even asked the central government not to make the holy city a “deport centre”. He had also said that deportation was a national problem, but it was being made to appear that only Punjabis migrate illegally.

The crackdown against illegal immigrants gained momentum earlier this month when on February 5, the first batch of 104 Indian immigrants was deported from the US and brought to Amritsar in a US military aircraft. Among these deportees, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, and 30 from Punjab.

On February 15, a second batch of 117 illegal immigrants landed at Amritsar on another US military aircraft. This batch included 65 from Punjab, 33 from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh and two each from Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir.

The following day, a third US military aircraft carrying 112 Indian immigrants landed at Amritsar airport, bringing the total number of deportees sent back from the US amid the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration to 345.