Amid controversies that Indian illegal migrants deported from the US were mistreated, AAP has questioned the Centre whether it was ready to send planes to the US to bring back our nationals who are in the country with no documents.
The first batch of Indian illegal immigrants were brought back home in a US military aircraft on Wednesday. The flight landed in Amritsar on Wednesday with 104 people. Controversy erupted after some deportees claimed that their hands and legs were cuffed throughout the journey and that they were unshackled only after landing in Amritsar.
AAP leader Sanjay Singh said in Parliament that the deportees were mistreated even after they arrived in India. "When they landed on Indian soil, our citizens were taken away in Haryana's prisoner vans. America did whatever it could to them, but why were they treated like this on our soil as well?," he questioned.
Singh said small countries are sending their planes to bring back their citizens. "Can't the Indian government do the same? Are you making any such plan to bring back your citizens? I would also like to ask that an American military plane landed on your soil, and you didn't even get to know about it?," he questioned.
EAM S. Jaishankar's Point-by-Point Rebuttal to the Opposition's Agenda on the U.S. Deporting Illegal Immigrants- pic.twitter.com/PGl80Y62Sc
— Janta Journal (@JantaJournal) February 6, 2025
However, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has made the government stance clear, stating that it was the responsibility of immigration and customs authorities to arrange for a chartered aircraft, and any aircraft that arrives is under the authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
On the deportees being handcuffed, Jaishankar said the SoP for deportations organised and executed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities in the US provides for the use of restraints. However, we have been informed by ICE that women and children are not restrained, he added.
