(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – At least 104 Indian citizens were deported from the United States Tuesday night on a military aircraft, according to officials from India’s Punjab state, as US President Donald Trump makes stemming migration a top priority.
The C-17 aircraft, carrying migrants mainly from India’s Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab states, landed Wednesday afternoon local time in the northwest city of Amritsar, Punjab officials said.
It marked the longest distance flight since the Trump administration began deploying military aircraft for migrant transportation, according to a US official.
Friends and family of some of the returnees told CNN of the hardships the deportees faced to get to the US, only for them to be sent back soon after arrival.
Manriasat Singh, whose 23-year-old cousin Akashdeep Singh was among those on the deportation flight, told CNN that Akashdeep “sounded low.”
Akashdeep left for the US seven months ago, spending nearly $60,000 for the journey that his father had acquired by selling two-thirds of their land, his cousin told CNN.
Shortly after Akashdeep’s arrival to the US in January, he was detained and deported from there, his cousin said. “His parents are happy that he has not spent ten years in jail and is returning. At least he is alive,” Manriasat added. CNN
