{"id":14728,"date":"2025-02-09T08:51:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T08:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=14728"},"modified":"2025-09-26T17:50:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T17:50:24","slug":"handcuffed-legs-chained-40-hour-long-ordeal-indians-deported-on-us-military-plane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=14728","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Handcuffed, Legs Chained, 40-Hour Long Ordeal\u2019: Indians Deported on US Military Plane"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It appears that women deportees were also handcuffed and chained, even as the external affairs minister said this was not part of US policy.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWhen we were handcuffed and our legs were being chained, we thought that we were going to another migrant camp. We had no idea where we were being taken until we boarded the US military aircraft and were told that we were being deported,\u201d said Harwinder Singh, one of the 104 Indians who arrived aboard a deportation aircraft<\/a> in Amritsar on Wednesday (February 5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once inside the aircraft, the handcuffed and chained deportees were made to sit facing each other and remained restrained even as they asked to use the washroom, Harwinder told The Wire<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was one shock after the other for us \u2026 We pleaded with the US officials to remove our handcuffs so that we could drink water and use the washroom, but they did not respond,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrested for entering the US without documentation, the deportees hail from various parts of India but largely from Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab. Those from Punjab were grilled by security personnel at Amritsar\u2019s Sri Guru Ramdas ji International Airport on Wednesday before being released late at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chief of the US Border Patrol on Thursday shared a video<\/a> of Indian deportees being led into a C-17 military aircraft in handcuffs and chains, validating their claims of being restrained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harwinder said that officials undid his chains at the Amritsar airport and told him he was barred from entering the US for five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt helpless and mentally lost, trying to figure out if it was all a bad dream or the harsh reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women also among those \u2018restrained\u2019 aboard military flight<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While external affairs minister S. Jaishankar said in parliament<\/a> on Thursday that American federal policy did not entail \u2018restraining\u2019 women being removed from the US, one woman deportee aboard the military flight said she was handcuffed and her legs chained, while a relative of another woman told The Wire<\/em> she was handcuffed and suffered injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amritsar-based Manjeet Kaur\u2019s hands and feet were swollen and she was taken to the clinic by her family after going home, a distant relative of hers told The Wire<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen Manjeet came home at around 9:30 pm, she had swelling and minor injuries on her hands and feet. She was already in a state of shock because of her deportation and 40-hour-long flight. Her family took her to the doctor and got some medicines to treat the swelling,\u201d the relative said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He continued: \u201cAll women deportees were handcuffed and their legs were chained like the male deportees. However, children were spared and they were not handcuffed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Lovepreet Kaur from Punjab\u2019s Kapurthala district, who arrived aboard the military flight with her son, told the Ajit<\/em> newspaper that she was similarly restrained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was handcuffed and my legs were chained. Everybody was meted out the same treatment. We were taken together to the US military plane and learnt about our deportation there,\u201d said Lovepreet, who had reportedly spent Rs 1.5 crore to join her husband in the US via a so-called \u2018donkey route\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lovepreet began her journey to the US on January 1 this year and reached the country on January 27. She was deported within ten days of her arrival. Like many others, she also travelled to the US via European countries using a Schengen visa, she told mediapersons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some male deportees also said that women were handcuffed. Thirty-four year-old Jaskaran Singh, who is based in Kapurthala and was also deported aboard the US military plane, said, \u201cAll the women in the flight were handcuffed and their legs were chained. However, they spared the children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deportees held at migrant camp at US-Mexico border before removal to India<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaskaran continued: \u201cThe US Border Police officials had handcuffed us right at the migrant camp on the US border [with Mexico]. Seeing the US police action, some children from a Gujarati family started crying loudly. They were terrified and it took a while for their parents to pacify them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said that his time at the migrant camp was akin to \u201ctorture\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were not allowed to sleep. The US border police would knock on the doors loudly,\u201d Jaskaran alleged. \u201cWe were staying in a flex camp, which housed around 50 people in a standard room size area \u2026 We were given Lays chips and apples to eat. However, thankfully, the washrooms were fine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harwinder, who had noted that he only found out about his deportation when boarding the military aircraft, said that the deportees were uncertain about their future while at the camp. \u201cWe did not know anything. Everybody was clueless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sold agricultural land, gold to finance US journey\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harwinder\u2019s wife Kuljinder Kaur said that their family spent Rs 42 lakh to finance his journey to the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe spent Rs 42 lakh to send my husband to the US, for which we not only sold an acre of agricultural land but also my gold. We have been duped,\u201d said Kuljinder, who added that members of her village\u2019s panchayat had gone to the local police station to receive her husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also questioned the silence of the Modi government, saying, \u201cIf they cannot provide decent work and employment to people back home, at least they should speak up for those who try to make their life better on their own. It is shocking that not just the Modi government but the AAP [Aam Aadmi Party] government also remained silent during this time. They should have spoken for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaskaran, who comes from an agricultural family, said that he now stares at a bleak future, having become saddled with a debt of Rs 45 lakh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am the youngest in the family and the only brother of four sisters. My elderly parents are deeply upset and disheartened. \u2018Bad luck\u2019, what else I can say\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaskaran added that his trip to the US via the \u2018donkey route\u2019 began on July 19, 2024 and that he reached the country on January 24, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and a group of around eight others from Punjab \u2013 all of whom were deported on Wednesday \u2013 had paid Rs 45 lakh each to a Dubai-based travel agent, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group went by air from Amritsar to Dubai and then to South Africa and Brazil. From Brazil, they travelled by bus; crossed rivers, hills, marshy areas and jungle by foot; and crossed Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and finally Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe crossed around 13 countries, only to roam the world and return home empty-handed. Sadly, our agent, who remained in touch with us all this while, never told us anything about\u201d US President Donald Trump\u2019s strict immigration policies, he said. \u201cOur agent had promised us that we would reach the US within a month, but it took us six months to cross the US border.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another incident, a Jalandhar-based deportee named Devinderjit went missing from his house during the wee hours of Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When this report was filed, his elderly mother and villagers were trying to trace him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaspal Singh, another deportee onboard the flight, told The Wire<\/em>, \u201cNot only is it a huge setback \u2013 we are staring at a major financial loss \u2013 but the ordeal that we faced in the 40-hour long journey has left us shattered too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like others, Jaspal, who hails from Gurdaspur district, gave Rs 30 lakh to an agent to send him to the US. He stayed in Brazil for six months during his journey and crossed the US border in January this year, after which he was arrested by the US Border Police and deported within 11 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference Link:- https:\/\/thewire.in\/diplomacy\/handcuffed-legs-chained-40-hour-long-ordeal-indians-deported-on-us-military-plane<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It appears that women deportees were also handcuffed and chained, even as the external affairs minister said this was not part of US policy.  \u201cWhen we were handcuffed and our legs were being chained, we thought that we were going to another migrant camp. We had no idea where we were being taken until we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[12270,12265,12268,39,12266,12267,12269,12272,60,12271],"class_list":["post-14728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-handcuffed","tag-hand-scuffed-indians","tag-illegal-immigrants","tag-india","tag-indian-deported-from-us","tag-indians-deported-on-military-plan","tag-visa-violators-indians","tag-40-hour-long-ordeal-indians-deported-on-us-military-plane","tag-geopolitics","tag-legs-chained"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14730,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14728\/revisions\/14730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}