Indians deported by US military aircraft said that they faced horrific conditions, sometimes walking for miles and sometimes coming across dead bodies.
According to the Indian Media total of 104 people returned and published their stories. Harvinder Singh, from Tahli tehsil of Hoshiarpur district, said that the person who sent him to the US had taken Rs 4.2 million in exchange for granting him a work visa.
At the last minute, they were told that the visa could not be obtained and then they were put on a Qatari plane from Delhi and from there on a flight to Brazil. In Brazil, they were told that another flight would take them there, but there was no such flight. After that, they reached Colombia by taxi and then Panama and were told that they would be taken to the United States by ship, but there was no ship there. ‘From then on, our ‘dinky’ journey began, which lasted for two days.’
After passing through difficult mountain passes, Singh and the others with him were told that they would be taken to the Mexican border by a small boat. After traveling for four hours, the boat capsized, resulting in the death of one person and the rest swimming to the jungle, where another person lost his life. For food “We had a little rice, which kept us alive for several days.”
Sukhpal Singh, a resident of Darapur, also faced similar conditions. He says he traveled for 15 hours in and walked 40 to 45 kilometers through mountains and deep ravines. According to him, “If someone was injured, they would have been left to die. We saw many such bodies on the way. “He said that the trip did not yield any special results and we were arrested in Mexico before entering the US. “We were kept in dark cells for 14 days, during which we did not see any light. “He warned those who chose the wrong routes to go abroad to avoid doing so, as thousands of people who are still going are in such conditions.
A US military ship carrying 104 Indians arrived in Amritsar on Wednesday. Of these, 33 are from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 are from Punjab and the remaining three are from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, while two are from Chandigarh. They include 19 women and 13 children aged between four and seven.
Jaspal Singh is one of those who claims that his hands and feet were tied during the journey in such a way that he could not move and was untied only after landing at Amritsar airport. He says that the travel agent had assured him that he would be sent to the US legally and took Rs 30 lakh and for that, I had to stay in Brazil for six months and was arrested by security personnel at the US border on January 24.’
Kanubhai Patel, the father of one of the boys who was deported, said that his daughter had gone on holiday with her friends a month ago.
According to him, ‘I don’t know what she had planned after reaching Europe, the last time we spoke was on January 14. We have no idea how he reached America.’ Other people from Punjab said they had taken loans for a better future in America and demanded action against the agents.
