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Jalandhar: Amidst an ongoing crackdown against illegal immigrants, two tragic truck accidents involving young Sikh youths and incidents of cargo thefts, the United States government has deported 54 Indian youths, including women, on a New York-Delhi civilian flight. They were all in handcuffs when they returned.

They had reached the US via using a dunki route – a slang used to define an illegal journey through land, sea and air routes.

The deportees – a majority of whom are from Haryana, followed by Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Goa – reached home on October 26, after a team of Karnal police, Haryana, picked them up from Indira Gandhi International Airport in the capital. 

The youths from Haryana were brought to Karnal, where they were handed over to their parents.

Karnal deputy superintendent of police (headquarter) Sandeep Kumar said, “A total of 50 youths from Haryana were deported from the US. We have no information about the total number of youths deported from the US.”

The deportees were either arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials while they were at work in the US or were detained in the detention centres. 

Several of them remained in detention facilities for nearly eight to 11 months before being finally deported in this batch.

One of the poll promises during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the US deportation drive started in February this year, when the first US Army aircraft carrying 104 Indians, including women and children, landed in Delhi.

In September, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had informed that 2,417 Indian nationals had been deported from the US since January.  

Earlier in March this year, Union minister of external affairs S. Jaishankar in a reply in Rajya Sabha had also shared that from 2009 to 2024, a total of 15,564 people had been deported from the US.

The Union government had registered strong objections with the US for handcuffing the women and children too. 

However, months later, another batch of Indian nationals were deported by the US government in shackles.

Nearly all the youths deported in the latest batch share the same story of dunki routes, debt and distress – just like the earlier deportees.

Among them was Husan (21), from Popra village of Karnal district of Haryana, who remained in the detention centre for 11 months before being deported on October 26, 2025.

Husan’s uncle, Surender Singh, told The Wire that he has no idea how Husan got in touch with travel agents and opted for a dunki route. 

“All we know is that he was excited to leave for the US via the dunki route, but we never knew he would come back in shackles,”........

© The Wire