‘Paid ₹1 crore to reach US, sold lands’: Deported Indians' price of a failed American dream

Several deported Indians who returned to India on February 5 on a US military plane have narrated stories of how they were betrayed by the agents they paid as much as ₹1 crore to help them enter the United States. Some lost their life savings, while others sold their land in pursuit of a better future.

One Gujarati family claimed to have paid ₹1 crore for assistance in reaching the United States. In another incident, a man from a village in Amritsar shared that his family sold 1.5 acres of land and spent over ₹42 lakh to send his nephew abroad, who reached the US via Mexico just a few months ago.

According to the report, the senior police officer indicated that authorities would investigate those who assisted the deportees in reaching the US, as well as the amounts paid to these illegal immigration agents.

A US military plane carrying 104 deported Indian migrants arrived in Amritsar on February 5. This was the first such flight to the country as part of a crackdown ordered by the Trump administration. 

According to a report from TOI, of these 104 deported individuals, 79 were men, and 25 were women. 

Sources told PTI that 33 were from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.

Were the deportees handcuffed?

A viral social media post circulating online shows Indians "handcuffed" and “humiliated” while aboard the plane. However, a PIB Fact Check says, “The image being shared in these posts does not pertain to Indians. Instead, it shows those deported to Guatemala.” 

Earlier, while speaking to PTI, Jaspal Singh, who was among the 104 deportees brought in the US military aircraft, claimed that their hands and legs were cuffed throughout the journey and they were unshackled only after landing at the Amritsar airport.  

Meanwhile, the US deportation came just days before PM Narendra Modi's visit to Washington for wide-ranging talks with President Donald Trump.

(With inputs from PTI, ANI)