Harpreet Singh Laliya, a Nagpur resident and one of the 104 Indians deported from the US, has claimed that he returned in ignominy in handcuffs and chains around his legs He had planned to go to Canada, but a mistake by his agent shattered his dream, said Laliya on Thursday.

He also rued that the loss of Rs 50 lakh he raised from banks and kin to migrate, besides enduring gruelling treks to get to the US and the gut-wrenching uncertainty that accompanied every step.

A C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US military carrying these 104 illegal immigrants landed at Amritsar airport on Wednesday. They comprise 33 each from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.

“I had gone on a Canada visa. I started my journey from New Delhi on December 5, 2024. I had a connecting flight from Abu Dhabi the next day but was not allowed to board, after which I returned to Delhi and stayed there for eight days. Then I was made to board a flight to Cairo in Egypt, from where I was supposed to go to Montreal in Canada via Spain,” Laliya told reporters.

After staying in Spain for four days, Laliya said, he was sent to Guatemala, from there to Nicaragua, further to Honduras and Mexico, and then to the US border.

“I spent Rs 49.5 lakh in all. This money was taken from banks as loans and from friends and kin. I had gone on a Canadian visa and wanted to go to work in that country. However, due to my agent’s mistake, I suffered this ordeal,” Laliya claimed.

The ordeal included being “caught by the mafia in Mexico and held by them for 10 days”, a four-hour mountain trek in that nation and then a gruelling 16-hour walk to the US border, he told reporters.

Speaking on the deportation, Laliya said he and 103 others were taken to a “welcome centre” and then put on a US aircraft after being handcuffed and legs chained.

While the opposition stepped up its attack on the Union government for the treatment meted out to the deportees as well as the misery they suffered en route, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that 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,” the EAM told Parliament.

Jaishankar asserted that the process of deportation has been ongoing for several years and is not new.

Citing data available with Indian law enforcement authorities, the minister said in 2009, 734 were deported, 799 in 2010, 597 in 2011, 530 in 2012, and 550 in 2013.

As per Jaishankar's statement, in 2014 when the NDA government came to power, 591 were deported, followed by 708 in 2015. In 2016, a total of 1,303 were deported, 1,024 in 2017, and 1,180 in 2018.

The highest deportation was witnessed in 2019 with 2,042 illegal Indian immigrants being sent back to the country. In 2020 the deportation number was 1,889; 805 in 2021; 862 in 2022; 670 in 2023; 1,368 last year, and 104 so far this year.

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