Outrage in India over ‘inhumane’ US deportation of undocumented migrants

The alleged mistreatment of undocumented Indian migrants deported from the United States has sparked outrage in India ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump in Washington this week.

Last Wednesday, a US military aircraft carrying these 104 Indian nationals, who were deported as part of Trump’s widening immigration raids, landed in the northern Indian city of Amritsar.

Images of them arriving handcuffed with their legs shackled on board the plane during their long flight from the US have angered many social media users.

Opposition politicians in India have protested against what they perceived to be Washington’s ill-treatment of their compatriots. Congress party leader K.C. Venugopal K.C. Venugopal staged a protest wearing handcuffs in parliament last week.

Pawan Khera, a spokesman for Congress, said on social media platform X last Wednesday: “Looking at the pictures of Indians getting handcuffed and humiliated while being deported from the US saddens me as an Indian.”

Prithviraj Sathe, an X user, bemoaned how the Indians were deported “from the US in the most inhumane way – handcuffed, leg-chained, treated like criminals. One toilet for a long-haul flight”.