Indian people were shocked by the tragic and humiliating sight of 104 of our people cruelly deported from the US, handcuffed and chained like criminals, arriving in a US military aircraft, after a 40-hour tortuous flight.
These were the first batch of Indian immigrants deported from the US after the executive orders issued by US President Trump. The aircraft landed in Amritsar in the early hours of 5 February, 2025. The videos of Indian citizens including women and minor children – shackled in chains – being paraded towards a US military aircraft, for its farthest-ever journey as a deportation flight, have caused widespread public resentment and anger throughout India.
The Indian state deliberately allowed the landing of the US military aircraft carrying the shackled Indian deportees to be carried out in such a manner as to draw the least attention of the media and the public. Though forcible deportation of our people from another country is a matter of grave diplomatic concern, the Indian government displayed no such concern. There were no prior public announcements by the government as to how many Indians were going to be deported, when and in what manner. The aircraft landed in the early hours of the morning, and media persons were prevented from taking photographs or videos of the landing or the disembarking of the passengers, according to reports. The government made no arrangement for a proper reception of the traumatized people or for ensuring their care and well-being.
While Indian people have been greatly outraged by this inhuman treatment meted out to our citizens by the US authorities, the representatives of the Indian state have defended the US action of deporting our people in chains in a military plane, in the most shameful manner. Justifying the US action, India’s External Affairs Minister Jaishankar said in Parliament that the “standard operating procedure for deportation by aircraft used by ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the US government], effective from 2012, provides for the use of restraints.” He claimed that the “needs of deportees, including food, other necessities, and potential medical emergencies, are attended to during transit… deportees are temporarily unrestrained during toilet breaks if necessary… this ICE policy does not apply to women and children.” He repeated that there has been no change from past procedure for the flight undertaken by the US on 5 February 2025. He also reiterated the government’s stand that “we support and defend only legal immigration”, thereby stating that the government has no responsibility towards ensuring a dignified treatment of the deported immigrants.
Jaishankar’s statement came even as the deported men and women explicitly told the media that their hands and legs were chained, including those of the minor children, and their shackles were not removed even when they were given food and drink or needed to use the washroom. They clarified that their shackles were removed only after they landed at Amritsar. Media visuals and reports also showed Jaishankar’s assertions to be false. Neither the Minister for External Affairs or MEA officials on the Indian side, nor US officials have denied the reports of women and children being shackled.
The people who have been deported in such terrible conditions are reported to be from Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh. Recounting their trauma to the media, several of them spoke of how they had made it to the US just a few years, or in some cases, just a few months or weeks before. Most of them had made desperate journeys, through jungles, crossing rivers and seas, using the so-called ‘dunki’ routes, to reach the US in the hope of a better life for themselves and their families back home. Many of them had sold their farmlands and incurred huge debts, of crores of rupees, in order to pay various agents who had lured them with dreams of a better future.
The grinding poverty, soaring unemployment, terrible social insecurity and utterly uncertain future facing vast masses of our working people, especially the youth, is the chief reason for people resorting to such desperate measures in the hope of a better future abroad. The Indian bourgeoisie, headed by the monopoly capitalist houses, which rules our country has no solution to these problems of the masses of our people, because the exploitation and immiseration of the working class, peasantry and other working masses is the source of the enrichment of the bourgeoisie. Unemployment and insecurity of the working masses help the bourgeoisie to push down their wages and working conditions even further, in order to enhance the profits of the monopoly capitalist houses. The Indian state and all its agencies defend this barbaric exploitation of the working masses.
It is well known that countries like the US have very stringent rules for legal immigration and these involve very long and complicated processes. Most workers and peasants in India can never meet the criteria for such legal immigration. Numerous unscrupulous agents in many parts of the country take advantage of this situation, to dupe people, with the promise of getting them to US and other destinations through illegal channels. They charge large sums of money, for which people are forced to sell their land and property and take huge loans. These rackets flourish under the very eyes of the authorities. Many people die in the course of the dangerous journeys they have to undergo illegally to reach their destination. When they are deported, having lost everything they had, their lives are completely devastated. The Indian state takes no responsibility towards their rehabilitation and ensuring their future.
The response of the Indian government stands in stark contrast to the response of governments of other countries to which the US also deported their people.
The President of Columbia, Gustavo Petro objected to the immigrants being sent back on a military plane in handcuffs and treated as criminals, pointing out that this was an affront to their dignity and was against international protocol. He denied entry to the US planes and Columbia sent its own air force to escort its people back with dignity.
When a US plane carrying deported migrants from Brazil landed in that country, the Brazilian government objected to the use of handcuffs on its citizens as an insult to their dignity. The handcuffs were removed by the Brazilian police and the government of Brazil is working to ensure safe and dignified return of its people.
The Mexican government denied a US military plane carrying migrants access to land, and instead organised government-chartered flights to bring back the migrants with dignity.
The government of India, in stark contrast, raised no objection with the US for the inhuman treatment of its people. Instead, it did everything to cover it up and to justify it when it was revealed.
The ruling Indian bourgeoisie, in pursuit of its imperialist ambitions, has been steadily strengthening and expanding its strategic and military alliance with the US. These include concessions to US monopoly capitalists, close military cooperation and coordination between India and US as well as India’s active participation in the US led QUAD initiative in the Indo-Pacific. PM Modi is scheduled to visit US to meet President Trump on 13 February, to discuss enhancement of trade, defence and nuclear ties between the two countries.
Clearly, for the Indian bourgeoisie, its own imperialist ambitions are of far more importance than the safety and dignity of its toiling people.
It is essential to replace this barbaric and inhuman rule of the bourgeoisie with the rule of the workers, peasants and all toiling people, in order to ensure the rights, security, dignity and well-being of our people.