New Delhi (TIP)- The United States (US) has deported 3,258 Indian nationals so far this year, the highest number in the past 16 years, with the total number of people deported since 2009 touching 18,822, according to figures provided by the government in Rajya Sabha on Thursday, Dec 4.
The government has engaged US authorities to ensure that people being deported are not ill-treated and that women and children on deportation flights are not restrained with handcuffs and chains, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said while responding to questions from MPs. A protest was lodged with the US after 73-year-old Harjit Kaur was maltreated before her deportation in September, he said,
Indian authorities, both at the central and state levels, have taken action against illegal recruitment agencies and travel agents involved in human trafficking, and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has investigated 27 human trafficking cases and arrested 169 people, Jaishankar said. The NIA, which has set up an anti-human trafficking division, arrested “two important traffickers” in Haryana and Punjab this year.
According to figures provided by Jaishankar in a written reply to a question from Ramji Lal Suman of the Samajwadi Party, a total of 3,258 Indian nationals were deported by the US between January and November 28. Of these, 2,032 people were deported on regular commercial flights, and the remaining 1,226 on charter flights operated by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The number was the highest since 2009, when 734 Indians were deported from the US. The figure rose to 1,303 in 2016 and to 2,042 in 2019. After declining in subsequent years, the figure again rose to 1,368 in 2024. The latest rise corresponded with the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal migration since the start of the year.
Jaishankar said the US deports individuals who illegally entered the country, overstayed their visa, were found in the US without documentation, or have criminal convictions against them. The Indian government works closely with US authorities on deportation, which is agreed to after “unambiguous verification” of the Indian nationality of those being deported.
Responding to supplementary queries from Suman, Jaishankar said no instance of the shackling of women and children had come to the notice of the external affairs ministry since a deportation flight on February 5. Immigration officials and Harjit Kaur’s lawyer had confirmed that she was not handcuffed or restrained. However, Kaur was “maltreated in detention before she was put on the flight”, Jaishankar said.
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