Deportees narrate tales of harrowing journey from US

Several of the 104 Indians deported from the US this week said they were handcuffed and shackled during their 40-hour flight home, with most learning about their deportation only after landing in Amritsar on Wednesday.

- HT Correspondents

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People from the group, which included 72 men, 19 women and 13 children, described systematic detention procedures, freezing holding facilities, and a final journey where they remained chained and under strict surveillance.

"We have been treated as if we were some hardcore criminals," said Lovepreet Kaur, 30, who was deported with her 10-year-old son. "We were not allowed to move in the plane as the handcuffs and chains tied along the waist and feet were not removed when the passengers asked to go to the toilet."

The accounts by the people HT spoke to came on a day as details of their journey back to the country stirred anger in Parliament and led to external affairs minister S Jaishankar issuing a statement on the issue. Jaishankar said the deportees being sent back in handcuffs and chains has been part of standard operating procedures of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since 2012. He, however, added that women and children are not restrained.

"The standard operating procedure for deportation by aircraft used by ICE, that is effective from 2012, I repeat to you, these are procedures in place from 2012, provides for the use of restraints," Jaishankar said in Lok Sabha. He laid an American document of 2012 on the restraint procedure on the table of the House.

Of the adults who returned on Wednesday, 37 were aged 18-25 years, with another 30 were in their thirties. Some were in the US for just days before detention. Others spent weeks in custody.