A 23-year-old man who was deported from the US to Amritsar along with 111 others on Sunday alleged he faced torture in a detention camp when he was caught entering the US illegally. He claimed he was in shackles on the deportation flight.
Jatinder Singh, who was among the 112 illegal Indian immigrants deported from the US to Amritsar on Sunday, narrated his ordeal about his two-week stay at a detention camp there, saying he was tortured and didn’t get proper food. He alleged that the US Army threw his turban (dastar) in the dustbin after forcing him to take it out.
Singh, 23, said he wanted to settle abroad with a job to support his family due to lack of employment opportunities in Amritsar. He also alleged that he was in shackles for around 36 hours on the US military aircraft that brought him and 111 undocumented Indians back to Amritsar on Sunday night.
“I was sent to a detention camp for two weeks after I was caught entering the US border on November 27 last year. I left home on September 12 last year. At the detention camp, they made me remove my turban despite my objection. They said it was their rule and threw the turban in the dustbin,” he told India Today TV in an exclusive interview.
He claimed that the US Army turned on the air conditioner at a low temperature and increased the heater power, which resulted in his skin being dry. “I did not have proper food there at all. They only gave me just Lay’s chips and Frooti juice two times a day,” he said.
Jatinder Singh said he came in contact with an agent in November 2024 on the advice of his friends and paid him Rs 50 lakh after he was promised to take him to the US. “My family sold all the land they had (1.3 acres) and I gave Rs 22 lakh to the agent in advance. I also sold off the jewelleries of my two married sisters and paid the remaining amount to the agent,” he said.
He also said that the agent told him that he would enter the US by first covering the jungles of Panama for three days and boarding a plane to Mexico, from where he would enter the US border from Tijuana.
Asked whether he was not aware that undertaking a risky journey to the US would lead to deportation, Jatinder Singh said, “The agent said there would be no issues. He said he had the experience of ensuring illegal immigrants crossed the border safely without being caught.”
He stressed that the jungles of Panama were very dense and that he saw the bodies of illegal immigrants, which he said, was a “depressing” sight to watch.
“The agent cheated me and he fled halfway. It took me three days to cross the Panama jungles. When I finally crossed the US border, the border police caught me and kept me in a detention camp where I was tortured,” he said.
Jatinder Singh claimed that he was kept in shackles on the US military plane and asserted that men and children were not restrained during the 36-hour flight.
“My hands were handcuffed and legs tied. We faced issues related to food and access to the washroom. They opened our shackles 10 minutes before the flight landed,” he said, adding he would now look for a job in India and never go abroad.
Concerns over the treatment of deported Indian immigrants intensified earlier this month after a US Air Force plane carrying 104 deportees landed in Amritsar on February 5. Some of those on board said they were restrained with handcuffs on their wrists and ankles for the duration of the flight and were only freed after arriving in India.
Reacting to the controversy, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Harjinder Singh Dhami demanded action against the guilty over the removal of turbans of the Sikh deportees.
“Our children who are coming here after being deported from the US are being stripped of their turbans. Action should be taken against them and an investigation should be done into the matter. The SGPC will help them,” he said at a press conference before he announced his resignation on ‘moral grounds’.
OVER 300 ILLEGAL INDIAN IMMIGRANTS DEPORTED FROM US TO INDIA
Out of the 112 deportees that landed at Amritsar airport on Sunday, 44 were from Haryana, 33 from Gujarat, 31 from Punjab, two from Uttar Pradesh, and one each from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
On late Saturday night, a second US military aircraft carrying 116 illegal Indian immigrants landed at Amritsar airport, with the men among the deportees claiming they were in shackles throughout the flight and Sikh youths were allegedly without turbans, which drew condemnation from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
Of these 116 deportees, 65 were from Punjab, 33 from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, two each from Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
The US has deported a total of 332 illegal Indian immigrants on all three flights so far.
