India on Thursday vowed migrant crackdown a day after a US military airplane flew back 104 migrants as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement.
Media Talk Africa reports that scores of unregistered migrants have been arrested across the United States since Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Trump’s executive actions aimed at overhauling immigration to the United States is estimated to impact 11 million undocumented migrants.
“It is the obligation of all countries to take back their nationals if they are found to be living illegally abroad,” India Minister of External Affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.
According to the Chief of the US Border Patrol, Michael W. Banks, the return of illegal aliens to India marked the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport.
Banks included in social media post on Wednesday a video showing a shuffling line of shackled migrants boarding military aircraft.
Jaishankar said that New Delhi was engaging the US government to ensure that the returning deportees are not mistreated in any manner during the flight.
He, however, noted the process of deportation is not a new one, and that the United States had expelled more than 15,000 Indians since 2009, almost half of them between 2019-2024.
“Our focus should be on crackdown — strong crackdown — on the illegal migration industry, while taking steps to ease visas for the legitimate traveller,” Jaishankar said.
Media Talk Africa reports that India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and enjoys world-beating GDP growth, but hundreds of thousands of its citizens still leave the country each year seeking better opportunities abroad.
