Watch: Video shows handcuffed and chained illegal immigrants from India boarding deportation flight
According to the deportees all the adults had their hands and legs shackled throughout the flight. Nineteen women and 13 minors, including a four-year-old boy and two girls, aged five and seven, were among the 104 deportees on the first flight to India.
US authorities have released a video showing illegal immigrants from India boarding their deportation flight. The C-17 military aircraft that took off from Texas on Tuesday landed at the Sri Guru Ram Dass Ji International Airport in Amritsar on Wednesday, nearly 40 hours after it departed the US.
CREDIT: IANS
Video shows deportees boarding flight
In the video, posted on X by Michael W. Banks, the Chief of the United States Border Patrol, the deportees can be seen lining up to board the flight.
The video showed the Indian nationals, who were shackled, dragging their legs as they entered the military aircraft.
"USBP and partners successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport," Banks said.
"This mission underscores our commitment to enforcing immigration laws and ensuring swift removals. If you cross illegally, you will be removed," he added.
USBP and partners successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport. This mission underscores our commitment to enforcing immigration laws and ensuring swift removals.
¡ª Chief Michael W. Banks (@USBPChief) February 5, 2025
If you cross illegally, you will be removed. pic.twitter.com/WW4OWYzWOf
Deportees chained throughout flight
According to the deportees, who arrived at Amritsar Airport on Wednesday, all the adults had their hands and legs shackled throughout the flight.
Nineteen women and 13 minors, including a four-year-old boy and two girls, aged five and seven, were among the 104 deportees on the first flight to India.
CREDIT: AP
Haryana, Gujarat, and Punjab accounted for most of the deportees who were caught by the US authorities while attempting to enter the US illegally.
Controversy over inhumane treatment
Meanwhile, the deportation of illegal immigrants from India had snowballed into a massive political controversy, with the opposing parties questioning the Narendra Modi government's silence on the 'inhuman treatment' towards the deportees.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that the US should have deported Indians on a commercial aircraft or a civilian plane. He stressed that deportation should have been conducted in a more "humane manner," he told ANI.
CREDIT: AP
Why did deportation flight land in Punjab?
Many in Punjab also questioned why the deportation flight was flown to Amritsar when most of the illegal immigrants were from Haryana and Gujarat.
They alleged that it was a deliberate attempt to malign the state's image and paint Punjab as the hub of illegal immigration.
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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