On December 5, 2024, with dreams in his eyes and hopes in his heart, Harpreet Singh Laliya, a Nagpur resident, started his journey from New Delhi to Canada. But little did he know he would be chained and deported back to India in two months for no mistake of his. He not only lost a dream of working in Canada but also Rs. 50 lakh borrowed from bank and friends and family. Mr Laliya claims to have gone on a Canada visa.
29-year-old Laliya is one of the 104 Indians deported from the US on charges of illegal immigration. A C-17 Globemaster aircraft carrying the first batch of Indian migrants deported from the US, landed in Amritsar on Wednesday. Of them, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.
READ | "No Idea How She Reached US": Questions Await Deported Indians Back Home
Recalling his journey, Mr Laliya said, "I started my journey from New Delhi on December 5, 2024. I had a connecting flight from Abu Dhabi the next day but was not allowed to board, after which I returned to Delhi and stayed there for eight days. Then I was made to board a flight to Cairo in Egypt, from where I was supposed to go to Montreal in Canada via Spain."
After staying in Spain for four days, Mr Laliya was sent to Guatemala, then to Nicaragua, Honduras, Mexico, and eventually to the US border, he said.
Mr Laliya was "caught and held by the mafia in Mexico for 10 days". He also did a four-hour mountain trek and a 16-hour walk to the US border.
Mr Laliya said he and 103 others were taken to a "welcome centre" where they were handcuffed and legs chained, before being put on a US aircraft.
The deportee blames his agent for the ordeal. "I spent Rs 49.5 lakh in all. This money was taken from banks as loans and from friends and family. I had gone on a Canadian visa and wanted to go to work in that country. However, due to my agent's mistake, I suffered this," he claimed.
READ | Indian Deportees Share Cost Of Their American Dream, Now Shattered
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar Thursday informed the Rajya Sabha that SoP for deportations organised and executed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities in the US "provides for the use of restraints".
Mr Jaishankar asserted that the deportation process is not new. Sharing the number of Indian immigrants deported since 2009, he said it totals 15,756.
2019 saw the highest number of deportees with 2,042 Indians being sent back home, followed by 1,889 in 2020.
Here is the year-wise data of Indians deported from the US:
2009: 734
2010: 799
2011: 597
2012: 530
2013: 515
2014: 591
2015: 708
2016: 1,303
2017: 1,024
2018: 1,180
2019: 2,042
2020: 1,889
2021: 805
2022: 862
2023: 617
2024: 1,368
2025 (till February 5): 104
- With inputs from PTI
