Jalandhar: A week after the last flight, another group of 12 Indians arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) on Sunday (February 23) from Panama, a Latin American country, where they were detained after being deported from the US on a Turkish Airlines commercial flight. The group had electronic tags attached to their legs.
Speaking to The Wire, Jugraj Singh from Chaudharpur village, Gurdaspur shared that though they were not handcuffed and shackled like previous deportees who were sent in US military planes, the deportees who reached India on Sunday had ‘electronic devices’ (perhaps radio tags) tied to their legs, which were removed only after they reached Amritsar.
“The electronic devices carried details about our hotel name i.e. Decapolis, Panama and hotel room number and our personal information. Our passports and mobiles were already seized by the travel agents before we entered the US,” he said.
This is the fourth flight of Indians deported from the US. Out of the 12 Indians who were deported this time – five were from Haryana, four from Punjab and two from Uttar Pradesh. After reaching Delhi at around 2:30 pm, they were sent to their respective destinations. The four Punjab-based deportees hailing from Jalandhar, Gurdaspur, Batala and Patiala reached Sri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport in Amritsar via an Indigo flight on Sunday evening.
Recalling the torture at Tijuana camp on the US-Mexico border, Jugraj mentioned that the US officials made them sit on the floor for hours in extreme cold.
They would send us to take bath late at night and did not allow us to wear jackets. We were allowed to wear just a T-shirt and a lower, which was a nightmare in those conditions. When we would come back to our rooms, they would switch on the air conditioners and whenever we asked them to provide something to cover ourselves, they would give us thin silver sheets, which were difficult to use as they were thin and would reflect light on our eyes,” he said.
Notably, Jugraj started his US journey via the dunki route on August 28 last year and entered the US on February 2.
“My agent made us stay in Columbia for four months. During this time, I kept telling my agent that Donald Trump was likely to act strictly against illegal immigrants, hence he should move us fast but he did not listen. Despite promises that I would be reaching the US via legal route, my agent sent me via Suriname, a Caribbean country to Mexico,” he said.
Underlining the nexus between agents and immigration officials, Jugraj pointed out that they were shocked to see the immigration staff at Suriname coming to their hotels to hand over their boarding passes. “Our agent made a single call and the airport staff was on their toes to hand over our boarding passes, which is not the case in regular flights.”
He explained that when they reached Suriname airport, the immigration staff there had their details prior to their landing and provided them with all the information for their journey ahead. Further, nobody at the airport doubted their credentials and they were given a go ahead within seconds.
Before entering the US this February, the agent asked Jugraj to pay an additional amount of Rs 7 lakh, which his family handed over to a person in Haryana. “Initially, I spent Rs 38 lakh for the US dunki but had to pay another Rs 7 lakh to enter the US,” he said, adding that they reached out to the travel agent who has assured them that the money will be returned. “However, if they refuse, we will lodge a police complaint.”
“Punjab government should check the licenses of all travel agents and act strictly to stop this menace,” he added.
This is not the first time Jugraj went abroad. He worked as a truck driver in Saudi Arabia from 2014 to 2020.
On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to the US, Jugraj said that it would have been better had he spoken for them. “While countries like Columbia and Mexico dared to raise voice against the US, the Indian government’s silence mounted our troubles,” he said.
However, the only saving grace was that they were not brought home in handcuffs and shackles. The mistreatment of deportees on the last three US military aircraft had led to widespread outrage, with opposition and civil rights groups questioning the Union government’s role. The first flight had landed on February 5, second one on February 15 and the third on February 16 – all in Amritsar, Punjab.
Till now, a total of 344 Indians have been deported by US President Donald Trump’s administration – most of them are from Punjab, Gujarat, or Haryana, with a few from other states. The influx of undocumented immigrants in the US was one of the major poll promises of Trump, which he had been addressing since day one of his second term in office. Apart from Panama, the Trump administration has sent deportees’ flights to Costa Rica and Guatemala too.
Jugraj informed that another group of undocumented migrants were likely to reach India in another commercial flight on February 25. “The fifth group of deportees will have individuals from Haryana and Punjab including two women from Jalandhar.”
