India engaging with US to ensure immigrants not mistreated, says Jaishankar
This story was originally published at 15:58 IST on 6 February 2025
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NEW DELHI - External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told Parliament Thursday that India is engaging with the US to ensure that illegal immigrants from India are not mistreated during the deportation process.
The minister did not give any number of illegal Indian immigrants to be deported from the US. Speaking first in the Rajya Sabha and later in the Lok Sabha, he said the government does not have any estimate of the number of Indians staying illegally in the US.
"We are engaging the US govt to ensure that the deportees not be mistreated in any manner," the minister said. "At the same time, the House will appreciate that our focus should be on the strong crackdown against the illegal immigration industry."
On whether the government had prior information of the first set of deportees to be sent back, Jaishankar said the Indian consulate was alerted about the deportation and Indian officials confirmed the nationality of all the deportees.
On Wednesday, a US military aircraft carrying 104 Indian migrants landed in Amritsar. It marked the first mass deportation under the second administration of President Donald Trump. The deportees, who had all entered the US illegally, were crammed into the aircraft and reportedly shackled and restrained throughout the flight. They were only released upon arrival in India.
According to media reports, 33 deportees each were from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 were from Punjab, three each were from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two were from Chandigarh. There were 19 women and 13 minors, including a four-year-old boy and two girls aged five and seven, on the flight.
The minister said the authorities concerned had been instructed to sit with every one of the deportees and find out how they went to the US and who the facilitators were. He said this was being done so that the government can prevent the continuation of this illegal migration.
"On the basis of information provided by the deportees, law enforcement agencies will take necessary preventive and exemplary action against the agents and such agencies," he said. "It is in our collective interest to encourage legal mobility and discourage illegal movement. It is the obligation of all countries to take back their nationals if they are found to be living illegally abroad. The process of deportation is not a new one."
The minister also released the figures of the Indians deported from the US since 2009. According to the figures, 15,756 Indians have been sent back from the US since 2009, with the highest number so far, 2,042, deported in 2019. End
Reported by Kuldeep Singh
Edited by Rajeev Pai
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