Third Batch Of 112 Illegal Indian Immigrants Lands In Amritsar In US Military Plane
Amritsar : The second batch of illegal Indian immigrants was deported by the US on Saturday. The third batch of such migrants landed in Amritsar on Sunday in the US military plane.
The third US military plane carrying 112 illegal Indian immigrants arrived at the Amritsar airport at 10 pm on Sunday, a day after 119 Indian nationals were deported in the second batch on Saturday as part of a massive crackdown by the Donald Trump administration.
This was the third such arrival within a span of 10 days of the crackdown against illegal immigrants in the US.
The third batch of deportees on board the C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US Air Force, consisted of 31 people from Punjab, 44 from Haryana, 33 from Gujarat, 1 each from Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and 2 from Uttar Pradesh. The flight landed at around 10.03 pm.
In the second batch, out of the 119 deportees, 100 were from Punjab and Haryana. Some of them claimed that they were handcuffed on their route back to India, a move by the US administration which was criticised heavily in India, mainly in the political corridors.
However, according to the Ministry of External Affairs sources, women and children were not restrained during the second flight that landed on Saturday. This was the first deportation flight after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump in Washington DC this week.
The Opposition had urged the government to convey through the diplomatic channels to the US that the deportees be not put in shackles on board the flight to India.
During the first round of deportation on February 5, the Indian nationals were shackled throughout the flight and were freed only after the plane landed in Amritsar. The move by the US government triggered a massive row in India as the issue reached Parliament.
The Opposition demanded a statement from the government in the Budget Session of the Parliament, the first part of which concluded on February 13.
External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar issued a statement in the Rajya Sabha and said that the government is engaging with the US to ensure that the deportees are not mistreated.
PM Modi, who was on a two-day visit to the US earlier this week, said at a press conference with Donald Trump that India will accept its citizens living illegally in the US. He also stressed on the need to end human trafficking.
India is the third largest source of illegal immigrants in the US after Mexico and El Salvador.
