33 Gujarat natives among 104 Indian migrants deported from US

Gujarat police officials told The Indian Express that the deportees will arrive in Ahmedabad on a private airline on Thursday. A senior official said, “The state home department will coordinate the transfer and arrival of the deportees after the formalities and basic screening are completed in Amritsar itself.”

The official added that the department is verifying the “local criminal records, documents, and proof of Indian identity” of the immigrants who hail from Gujarat.

A senior police officer said, “We are unaware at the moment if the deportees who have returned have family members left behind in line for deportation or because they had a legal stay permit in the US, but we do know that two single mothers are accompanying minors. Currently, the Punjab state government, in coordination with the Central government, is making arrangements for the returnees to stay in Punjab.”

Among the deportees is a family of three from Patan, including a 11-year-old. Two minors from Gandhinagar — aged eight and five — are accompanied by their mothers. A family of four from Mehsana, including a nine-year-old and a six-year-old, and a family of four from Gandhinagar has returned with twins aged 11.

In December 2023, a Nicaragua-bound chartered flight from the United Arab Emirates with 303 Indians was grounded in France’s Châlons Vatry airport on suspicions of human trafficking. Around 70 passengers hailing from Gujarat had returned to their home state in batches and were subjected to a probe by the Gujarat CID.

The senior officer said, “As per the process followed when Indian nationals were deported from the Vatry airport… The returnees were allowed to return to their homes and record police statements. That was done to investigate the role of local agents in the case. However, this time, since they have been returned by the US administration, we will try to understand what route they had taken to land in the US and what was the nature of their entry and stay in the US. We are awaiting instructions that will need to be followed in the case.”