Amritsar: 36-year-old Jaspal Singh spent a fortune travelling to America in search of a better life, but his desires were left shattered as he came back home in shackles aboard a US Air Force plane that landed in Amritsar on Wednesday to deport a batch of 104 illegal Indian immigrants.
The aircraft carrying illegal immigrants from various states arrived on Wednesday, marking the first group of Indians deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of its crackdown on illegal immigration.
Among them, 33 were from Haryana, 33 from Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh. The group included 19 women and 13 minors, among them a four-year-old boy and two girls, aged five and seven.
Deportees from Punjab were transported to their native places in police vehicles from Amritsar airport.
Indian deportee shares ordeal
Hailing from Hardorwal village in Punjba’s Gurdaspur district, Singh said it took him six months to reach the US and the Border Patrol arrested him on January 24, the day he arrived. The gruelling journey saw Singh travel by air to Europe and then Brazil, PTI reported.
Singh claimed he was defrauded by a travel agent who promised to arrange for his travel to the US legally but after reaching Brazil, he was forced to take on a donkey route to enter the US. He added that he ended up spending Rs 30 lakh for this trip.
Watch: Punjab man gives inside account of his journey deportation from US
VIDEO | “We were not aware that we were being taken to India. We thought we were being taken to another camp or detention centre. We were handcuffed and in shackles,” said Jaspal Singh, one of the deported Indian immigrants.
(Full video available on PTI Videos -… pic.twitter.com/L9Wn0z1fx4
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He added that the deportees were brought back with their hands and legs cuffed that were only unshackled after landing in Amritsar.
“I had asked the agent to send me through a proper visa. But he deceived me,” he said.
After getting arrested, Singh was kept in prison for about 11 days, the only time he stayed in the US, and that he had no knowledge of his deportation and only found out about it after landing.
“We thought we were being taken to another camp. Then a police officer told us that they were being taken to India. We were handcuffed and our legs were chained. These were opened at the Amritsar airport,” he claimed.
