Six hundred and thirty-six Indians have been deported from the United States since January, when the Donald Trump administration assumed office, the Union government told Parliament on Friday.

Three hundred and forty-one were deported to India by chartered flights, the government said. Many of these were undocumented immigrants and had arrived in India on board US military aircraft.

Two hundred and forty arrived on commercial flights and 55 on separate commercial flights through Panama.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities have shared with India details relating to another 295 persons who are “detained in their custody with final orders of removal” from the United States.

The information relating to those awaiting final deportation orders was being verified by the Ministry of External Affairs and other agencies, the government said.

The deportations come against the backdrop of a wider crackdown on undocumented immigration by the Trump administration.

Kirti Vardhan Singh, the minister of state for external affairs, told the Lok Sabha that it was “the obligation of all countries to take back their nationals, if they are found to be living illegally abroad”.

“This is, however, subject to an unambiguous verification of their nationality,” Singh said.

Singh added that this policy was a “generally accepted principle” in international relations.

The minister was reiterating New Delhi’s position on the deportations.

The ministry on Friday provided the information in response to a question about whether India had offered to repatriate 18,000 undocumented Indian immigrants from the US.

Reports in January said that India was working with the Trump administration to deport around 18,000 undocumented or visa-overstaying Indian citizens from the US.

The Opposition has criticised the government after videos showed the Indians deportees on US military aircraft having been shackled.

On February 6, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha that the persons had been shackled in keeping with past procedure.

“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 minister told Parliament. He said that New Delhi was informed by US authorities “that women and children are not restrained”.

He added that Indian authorities are engaging with the United States to ensure that “the returning deportees are not mistreated in any manner during the flight”.

On February 28, Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose filed a privilege motion against Jaishankar for making an allegedly misleading statement. Ghose said that despite the minister’s assurance that the deportees would not be mistreated, the second batch of deported Indian citizens who arrived on February 16 were also shackled.

Also read: The paradox, economic blowback of deporting undocumented Indian immigrants