The 104 Indian citizens who were deported from the United States on the US military flight that arrived in Amritsar on February 5 were shackled in keeping with past procedure, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told Parliament on Thursday.

Jaishankar was responding to questions about the deportation, including why the deportees were cuffed on their hands and legs on the flight back to India. The deportees were brought to India on a United States military aircraft, which landed in Amritsar on Wednesday afternoon.

“The standard operating procedure for deportation by aircraft used by [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement], that has been effective from 2012, provides for the use of restraints,” the external affairs minister told the Rajya Sabha. He said that New Delhi was informed by US authorities “that women and children are not restrained”.

Indian authorities are engaging with the United States to ensure that “the returning deportees are not mistreated in any manner during the flight”, the minister told Parliament.

Jaishankar said that India’s focus should be on a “strong crackdown on the illegal migration industry, while taking steps to ease visas for legitimate travellers”. He said that law enforcement agencies will take “preventive and exemplary” action against those who sent the deportees to the United States illegally.

The external affairs minister emphasised that the process of deportation was not new. He shared data from India’s Bureau of Immigration showing that 15,668 Indians have been deported from the United States since 2009.

The data showed that the number of deportees spiked from 2016 to 2020, with as many as 2,042 Indians having been deported from the US in 2019. The figures dropped from 2021 to 2023, before rising again to 1,368 in 2024.

“It is the obligation of all countries to take back their nationals if they are found to be living illegally abroad,” he said.

The deportation was part of a wider crackdown by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has used military aircraft to repatriate undocumented migrants. This was the first military deportation of Indian citizens since Trump returned to office on January 20.

Of those who were deported, 25 were women, 12 were minors and 79 were men. The flight also carried 11 crew members and 45 US officials.

Deportees recall ordeal

Jaspal Singh, who was one of the deportees who arrived in Amritsar on Wednesday, said that the legs and hands of the Indian citizens were cuffed throughout the flight and that they were unshackled only once they landed in India, PTI reported.

Jaspal Singh claimed to have been duped by a travel agent, who promised him that he would be sent to the United States legally.

Another deportee, Harwinder Singh, told PTI that he was taken to Qatar, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua and Mexico. He and others were then taken from Mexico to the United States, he said.

Harwinder Singh said that he saw one person dying in a forest in Panama, and another dying by drowning in the sea.

Sharing a video of the ordeal narrated by Harwinder Singh, Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said on social media: “Prime Minister, listen to this man’s pain. Indians deserve Dignity and Humanity, NOT Handcuffs.”