#India#US#IndianDeportation#DunkiRoute#PanamaForest#DonaldTrump
IBNS-CMEDIA: As a hundred and four illegal immigrants were deported to India on Wednesday, several videos have surfaced of how these Indians including women and children camped in a forested area in Panama, before they continued their long journey to Mexico and finally entered the US border.
Many sold their properties, including lands and homes, for the ‘Dunki’ route to enter the US with dreams of making fortunes there. However, on Wednesday these 104 Indians returned home empty-handed.
Several videos and information have surfaced showing how they were taken to the US by agents who charged a fortune just to throw these Indians into US soil over the fence undetected.
Many have said they were abandoned by their travel agents halfway.
A video emerged showing several Indians setting up tents in a small clearing in the forest. Men are seen in rubber boots sitting in mud, and women with infants in their laps are seen near the tents.
In one video the Indians are seen in raincoats amid a heavy shower in the jungle.
These Indians set out for a difficult journey from Panama and would then go northward to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and finally Guatemala before entering Mexico, from where they would try to enter the US.
The illegal journey into the US often involves dangerous crossings including the treacherous Darien Gap – a vast, roadless jungle that connects Colombia and Panama.
The Darien Gap is a 97-km stretch of dense rainforest, swamps, and mountains. It is the only break in the Pan-American Highway – a road system stretching from Alaska to Argentina. This impenetrable region has long been avoided due to its extreme terrain, harsh climate, and lack of infrastructure.
However, illegal migrants desperate to reach the US, even brave this unavoidable gateway.
A US military aircraft, which was carrying 104 deported illegal Indian immigrants, landed in the north Indian city of Amritsar city on Wednesday.
The Indians were deported on a C-17 plane that took off from San Antonio, Texas on Tuesday.
Now, the Indians who arrived in Amritsar recounted their harrowing experience of the 40-hour-long journey from the US to India.
The Indians claimed they were handcuffed and chained throughout the entire journey.
Reacting to the reports, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor told ANI, “It’s not the first time we have had people deported. It’s just that the media has suddenly woken up to this story because Mr Trump has done it a bit quicker than people expected. But already last year, under the Biden Administration, were over 1100 Indians being deported back.
“If you are illegally in the US, the US has the right to deport you and if your identity as an Indian is confirmed then India has an obligation to accept you. So, in both cases there really isn’t very much debate. However, it wasn’t good to hear that they were brought back forcibly in a military plane and handcuffed and so on. That was quite unnecessary. It should have been enough to put them on a commercial aircraft or civilian aeroplane and send them back. If you want to do a mass deportation, do in civilian charters. That would have been the more humane thing to do. “
