An American Globemaster C-17 carrying Indian illegal immigrants has departed from the United States. This is the first flight of illegal immigrants to India after Trump’s return to power. The US has already deported illegal immigrants to Honduras, Peru, and Guatemala. Donald Trump had already announced that the illegal immigrants would face deportation during his campaign.
According to the news agency Reuters, a senior official corroborated that the American GlobeMaster C17 left for India with illegal immigrants.
Sources told NDTV that as many as 205 illegal immigrants have been deported by the United States and the flight has left from Texas and it will reach India in the next 24 hours. Sources added that the process of deportation of illegal immigrants took place in collaboration with Indian officials after the latter verified that they were citizens of India.
The deportation process started amid reports of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s likely US visit next week. The United States embassy said it could not share the details of the deportation.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, said that New Delhi is open to the “legitimate return” of Indian nationals living ‘illegally’ abroad, including in the United States.
The Foreign Minister had affirmed that India’s position on the issue has been “consistent” and “principled” and he did clearly convey this to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“We have always taken the view that if there are any of our citizens, who are not here legally, if we are sure that they are our citizens, we have always been open to their legitimate return to India. So it’s not a position unique to the United States,” Jaishankar had said at a press conference in Washington DC.
(With ANI Inputs)
