Chandigarh, Feb 15: A plane carrying 119 illegal immigrants from the US will land at the Amritsar airport on Saturday, the second such batch of Indians to be deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of its promised crackdown on illegal migration.
The flight is expected to land at the airport around 10 pm on Saturday, official sources said. Among the 119 deportees, 100 are from Punjab and Haryana alone.
While 67 are from Punjab, 33 are from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
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The second batch of illegal Indian immigrants includes four women and two minors, including a six-year-old girl. Most of the deportees are in the age group of 18 to 30, sources said.
A third plane carrying 157 deportees is also expected to land on February 16, they said.
On February 5, a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian immigrants landed at the Amritsar airport. Of them, 33 each were from Haryana and Gujarat, and 30 from Punjab.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday questioned the move to land another plane at the Amritsar airport, as he accused the Centre of trying to defame Punjab as part of a conspiracy.
“The BJP-led Centre always discriminates against Punjab. It does not let go of any chance of defaming the state,” Mann said while addressing the media in Amritsar on Friday evening.
“As part of a conspiracy, they are trying to defame Punjab and Punjabis,” he said.
Mann also asked the Centre under which criteria the Amritsar airport was chosen to land the second aircraft.
“What is the criterion for choosing Amritsar? The Centre and the Ministry of External Affairs should tell me. Why did you choose Amritsar and not the national capital? You did this to defame Punjab and Punjabis,” Mann said.
Noting that deportation is a national issue, Mann said it is being made to appear that only Punjabis migrate illegally.
However, the BJP on Saturday hit back at Mann, accusing him of playing politics over the issue.
Commenting on the matter, BJP leader Tarun Chugh accused the AAP leader of playing politics over deportees.
“Bhagwant Mann sahab, people of Punjab want to know how the innocent youths went out, why they had to go, who were those who spoiled their lives. Why did they have to go adopting illegal routes, who sent them, who were the fraudulent agents who spoiled their lives?
“The youth were forced to sell their land, houses. Rather than catching the culprits and acting against those who spoiled the lives of these youths, the ‘AAP-da’ party leader is doing politics over the issue,” the BJP general secretary said.
After the first batch of illegal immigrants was sent on February 5, most of the deportees hailing from Punjab said they wanted to migrate to the US for a better life for their families. However, their dreams were shattered when they were caught on the US border and sent back in shackles.
Many people from Punjab and other states, who entered the US through “donkey routes” — an illegal and risky pathway used by migrants to enter America or other illegal means by spending lakhs of rupees — are now facing deportation. (PTI)
