Team News Riveting
Amritsar, February 5
The US military aircraft C-17 carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Shri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport here on Wednesday afternoon.
The flight carrying the Indians touched down at 1.55 pm. Of the deportees, 30 are from Punjab, 33 each are from Haryana and Gujarat, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.
However, official confirmation on the number of deportees is awaited. The C-17 plane with the Indians took off from San Antonio, Texas on Tuesday.
This is the first round of deportation of illegal immigrants that coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington next week. External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr S Jaishankar had earlier said that New Delhi was open to the “legitimate return” of Indian nationals living illegally abroad, including in the US.
India has expressed readiness to accept these migrants, post-verification, the Minister had conveyed to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month.
According to reports, approximately 725,000 illegal immigrants from India live in the US, making it the third-largest population of unauthorised immigrants after Mexico and El Salvador. A good number of people from Punjab, who are now facing deportation, had entered the US through the “donkey route” or other illegal means by spending lakhs of rupees.
The US administration has launched a crackdown against illegal immigrants after Donald Trump started his second term as the President.
