NEW DELHI: Addressing the controversy surrounding the handcuffing and shackling of illegal migrants deported by the US, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar today said, “Since 2012, the US rules provide for using ‘restraints’ on those being deported. Women and children are exempted.”
India, he said, was engaging with the US government to ensure that those returning were not mistreated.
The minister was making a suo motu statement in the Rajya Sabha following an outrage in the country over the alleged mistreatment meted out to 104 Indian nationals who were shackled and handcuffed while being deported. They had landed in Amritsar on board a military plane yesterday.
Jaishankar said deportation had been going on for long. He cited figures since 2009 to say that hundreds of people were deported each year by the US to India.
On the issue of handcuffs and shackles, the minister said, “The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a standard operating procedure, effective from 2012, which provides for the use of restraints”. The ICE has informed that women and children are not restrained.
“For toilet breaks, deportees are unrestrained,” said the minister. This morning, the chief of the US Border Patrol, Michael Banks, posted a video on X showing Indian nationals walking up the ramp of the US Air Force C-17 plane with their feet in shackles. “The US Border Patrol and partners successfully returned illegal aliens to India, marking the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport,” he said.
In the Rajya Sabha, Jaishankar said it was for the ICE to decide what kind of plane it wanted to charter. “The procedure, whether it was a military aircraft or a chartered flight, remains the same,” the minister said. Answering questions from MPs, Jaishankar said an advance notice had been given by the US.
Opposition MPs alleged that the deportation was allowed under US pressure.
Jaishankar said it was an obligation on all countries to take back their nationals if they were found to be living abroad illegally. This was subject to verification of their nationality. This is not a policy applicable to a specific country. It is a generally accepted principle in international relations.
The minister said, “It is in our collective interests to encourage legal mobility and discourage illegal movement.”
Congress leader Randeep Surjewala asked why the government remained silent. He wanted to know if the 7.25 lakh “undocumented” Indians living in the US had gone there as the Modi government had not been able to provide jobs. He asked if those in detention centres had been provided counsellor access.
He cited how in 2013, the Indian Government made the US apologise when it mistreated a diplomat (Devyani Khobragade). Sanjay Singh of the AAP wanted to know why the Haryana Police took away deportees belonging to the state in police vans.
Jaishankar responded to Surjewala saying counsellor access had to be requested by the person detained. On Sanjay Singh’s query, the minister said instructions had been given to the authorities to sit with every returnee to find out how they went to the US.