636 Indians deported from US since January, 295 awaiting removal orders, says Centre

Six hundred and thirty-six Indians have been deported from the United States since January, when the Donald Trump administration assumed office, the Union government told Parliament on Friday.

Three hundred and forty-one were deported to India by chartered flights, the government said. Many of these were undocumented immigrants and had arrived in India on board US military aircraft.

Two hundred and forty arrived on commercial flights and 55 on separate commercial flights through Panama.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities have shared with India details relating to another 295 persons who are “detained in their custody with final orders of removal” from the United States.

The information relating to those awaiting final deportation orders was being verified by the Ministry of External Affairs and other agencies, the government said.

The deportations come against the backdrop of a wider crackdown on undocumented immigration by the Trump administration.

Kirti Vardhan Singh, the minister of state for external affairs, told the Lok Sabha that it was “the obligation of all countries to take back their nationals, if they are found to be living illegally abroad”.

“This is, however, subject to an unambiguous verification of their nationality,” Singh said.

Singh added that this policy was a “generally accepted principle” in international relations.

The minister was reiterating New Delhi’s position on the deportations.

The ministry on Friday provided the...

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