The U.S. government’s treatment of deported Indian migrants has sparked anger across India after reports emerged that around 100 deportees were kept in shackles for the entire 40-hour flight home, including during bathroom breaks.
Indian lawmakers staged demonstrations outside Parliament on Thursday, with some wearing shackles in protest and others ridiculing the much-publicized friendship between U.S. President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In New Delhi, members of the youth wing of India’s main opposition party burned an effigy of Trump in outrage.
India Demands Fair Treatment For Deportees
External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar assured Parliament that India is engaging with U.S. officials to ensure that deported Indian nationals are treated with dignity. “Our focus should be on a strong crackdown,” Jaishankar said, adding about the need for legal mobility while calling for “preventive and exemplary actions” against agents facilitating illegal migration.
The Indian government has pledged to curb illegal migration to the U.S. as deportations are expected to rise, especially ahead of Modi’s scheduled visit to Washington next week.
The incident follows a similar controversy last month when Colombian deportees were shackled while boarding a U.S. deportation flight, sparking a diplomatic row that saw Colombian President Gustavo Petro initially refusing landing rights for the military plane.
Punjab Minister Urges Modi To Act
S. Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, a minister in Punjab—the state where the deportation flight landed—urged Modi to leverage his relationship with Trump to resolve the issue. “If this friendship cannot help Indian citizens in need, then what is its usefulness?” Dhaliwal’s office said in a statement.
The flight, one of the longest deportation missions involving military aircraft under the Trump administration, has drawn fresh scrutiny. A U.S. official confirmed that the migrants were shackled as they boarded.
“Our hands were cuffed and ankles tied with chains before we took the flight,” said 23-year-old Akashdeep Singh, one of the deportees who arrived in Punjab on Wednesday with 103 others. “We requested the military officials to take them off so we could eat or use the bathroom, but they treated us horribly,” Singh told CNN.
“The way they looked at us, I’ll never forget it,” he added. “We had to go to the bathroom with the shackles on. Right before landing, they removed them for the women. We saw it. For us, they were only taken off after we landed by local police officials.”
A video posted by U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael W. Banks on X showed deportees with shackles on their wrists and ankles, shuffling slowly up the ramp onto the aircraft.
As deportees return home, their stories expose the dangers of illegal migration. Many were abandoned by traffickers en route, left to fend for themselves in harsh conditions.
