“Inhuman”: While Modi visits Trump, outrage from the chained Indian deported | Migration

New Delhi, India – Culture Caur tried to try to call her husband again in the United States. After two weeks of the relationship did not pass, she was consumed with anxiety, she said from her home in Hoshiarpur, in the northern Indian state of Pengjab.

“I was really afraid of what might have happened to him – if he was robbed or killed there. He is the father of my children and I was afraid if I would ever see him again, “Kaur said.

She then saw Novinar: President Donald Trump's administration deported batches from illegal Indian immigrants.

Her husband, Harwind Singh, 40 -year -old, was among the 104 Indians who had entered the United States illegally in the last few years who had been deported by the authorities on Wednesday when Trump doubled on a key pledge for election that brought him back to Power in January.

Singh had made a desperate journey through the jungle, crossing rivers and seas, to the United States, in search of a better life for his family back to Punjab. This week, like many other detainees, including women, Singh had cuffs and legs during the 40-hour trip to Amritsar, a city in northern India.

The visual images of Indian citizens-arranged in chains-vaging to an American military aircraft for their farthest trip as a deportment flight caused anger in India. On Thursday, hours after the deported landed, opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress Party, organized a protest carrying handcuffs outside Parliament in New Delhi.

Days before the planned visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House on February 13, the outrage over the treatment of Indian citizens by US authorities was also tied to a question about Modi's bromantic with Trump. If Trump is really a friend of Modi, as both leaders claim, why did New Delhi fail to stop him from steps that could complicate the connections?

The answer, experts say, is a difficult balancing act that the Modi government thinks it should rule.

“The problem with the Trump administration is that there are a number of problems on the table, including tariffs,” says Harsh Pant, an analyst of geopolitics in New Delhi -based cerebral trust, an observer research foundation, referring to Trump's threats to impose tariffs to make tariffs on Indian imports. “So where do you give in and where do you negotiate?

“To make Trump happy, who is transactional in nature, India does not want to raise bets too much (on immigration) and absorb costs,” Pant told Al Jazeera. “There are other challenges you have to face.”

“Crass Side of America”

After Trump declared a national emergency immigration, his administration began military flights to deport untouched migrants. The US authorities have sent at least six immigrants to Latin America, which prompts tensions with Colombia and Brazil. The Brazilian government protested against the “humiliating treatment of passengers in the flight” after it turned out that its citizens were also handcuffed while deported.

However, India did not say that she had protested against such treatment, canceled by her citizens. Of the 104 Indians on the plane who landed on Wednesday, several were children – but they are not known to have been chained.

By 2022, India was ranked third, after Mexico and El Salvador, among countries with the largest number of undocumented immigrants – 725,000 – living in the United States.

The head of the US border patrol, Michael Banks, wrote to X that the authorities “have successfully returned illegal aliens in India”, writing a video showing that the chained men are kept on the military aircraft: “If you cross illegally, you will be removed.”

Anil Trigunay, a former Indian diplomat who served in the United States, told Al Jazeera that “treatment with Indian citizens, dragging them as criminals like this, is unprecedented” in his experience.

“The bezes and things like that are inhuman in essence. They have shown a very stupid side of the US establishment, “Trigunayat said. “It's a stupid language. And absolutely unjustified and unnecessary. “

“She was chained in chains”

Following a disturbance by opposition leaders in the two chambers of parliament on Thursday, India's Minister of Foreign Affairs S Jaishankar told parliament that the government was working with the Trump administration to ensure that Indian citizens were not abused while deported.

Jaishankar also noted in the address that the US operating procedure allowed “use of restrictions” while deported from 2012 and added that “no change from the past procedure”.

He also shared government data from 2009 about the deported, touched in 2042 in 2019, before it fell slightly again. Last year, 1368 undocumented Indian immigrants were deported by US authorities.

He added that the United States was told by the United States that women and children were not restrained and their requests during transit, including food, medical care and toilet breaks, were visited.

This was not the experience of Husbu Patel, a 35-year-old from Modi's home in Gujarat, on the 40-hour trip back home, her family said.

“She was chained in her chains all the trip, strictly restricted to her place,” her bigger brother Varun Patel told Al Jazeera from his home in Vadodara, a city in East Gujarat.

Husbu was in the United States only one month when she was detained by authorities. “We were not aware of her location and that worried us,” Brother Patel said. The family learned of Husbu's return when local media reached for their home.

“She told us that they had been brought as prisoners and criminals,” he said. “No one hurt her, but it was a terrifying experience.”

Patel said he was disappointed with the failure of Modi's government to “secure a decent return to our citizens.”

“What can they do for us now? There is no time. Our government has given this abuse. “

Devastated dreams

Inside at home in Hoshiarpur, Singh and Kaur, they are now worried about how they will recover a debt of over $ 55,000 owned to friends, local bank and small -time lenders who have caused to pay off agents in an attempt to put a single in the US. The couple, parents of two, sold their agricultural lands – but that wasn't enough. Not off.

“We were deceived by our agent, who left my husband to go from one place to another,” Kaur told Al Jazeera 35 years old.

Speaking with a muffled voice, Kaur said he felt forgotten when he saw immigrants chained in cuffs. “I am pleased that my husband is home with me now,” she said. “But now we are worried about the huge debt we are under. How will we ever refund this money? “

Vinod Kumar, head of the Sociology Department at the University of Panjab, Chandigarh, said thousands of young people continue to sell their belongings and take on risky, so-called jeans routes in search of a better life. “With deportation, they have completed their careers both at home and abroad,” he said, adding that the majority of deportes come from lower-income families.

“Earlier, this trend was limited to Punjab, Gujarat or to some states in (southern India),” says Kumar, who specializes in diaspora policy. It is now expanding to other parts of India.

Singh and the others on the plane with him are back where they left.

“They have to restart from scratch now,” Kumar said.