“For 40 hours, we were handcuffed, our feet tied with chains and were not allowed to move an inch from our seats. After repeated requests, we were allowed to drag ourselves to the washroom. The crew would open the door of the lavatory and shove us in,” said Harwinder Singh.
The 40-year-old from Tahli village in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur is among the 104 ‘illegal’ immigrants whom the US deported in the first batch to India.
Recounting the travel as a “worse than hell,” experience, Harwinder said that they couldn’t even eat properly for 40 hours. “They would force us to eat with handcuffs on. Our requests to the security personnel to remove the cuffs for a few minutes fell on deaf ears. The journey was not only physically painful, but also mentally exhausting…,” he said, adding that a “kind” crew member offered them fruits.
Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Punjab Cabinet Minister addresses the media after U.S. military plane deporting Indian immigrants lands in Amritsar (Reuters)
The US military aircraft — a C-17 Globemaster — that the Donald Trump administration deployed made four pit stops for fuel refilling before landing at Amritsar Wednesday. Harwinder said he could not sleep as he kept thinking about the promise of a better life that he made to his wife before his “dunki” travel eight months ago.
In June 2024, Harwinder and his wife Kuljinder Kaur, took a decision. With two children — 12-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter — the couple, married for 13 years, was struggling to make ends meet by selling cattle milk. Out of nowhere, a distant relative offered to take Harwinder to the US in 15 days legally, not via a dunki route, in exchange of Rs 42 lakh. To gather the amount, the family mortgaged their only acre of land and borrowed from private lenders at steep interest rates.
People look at the U.S. military plane deporting Indian immigrants as it lands in Amritsar (REUTERS)
Life had not prepared Kuljinder for the adversities to come. “But for 8- months, my husband was shuffled between countries,” Kuljinder said. “He was passed from one place to another like a pawn in a game. He never made it to the US.”
Harwinder endured life-threatening conditions but despite the hardships, he documented his ordeal and sent videos to Kuljinder. She last spoke to him on January 15.
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Harwinder remained in contact with his family until mid-January. The news of his deportation came as a shock to Kuljinder, who learned of it only when villagers informed her that he was among the 104 deportees sent back from the US on Wednesday.
Kuljinder said they had already filed a complaint against the travel agent with the village panchayat after losing contact with Harwinder last month.
She is demanding strict action against the agent and a refund of the Rs 42 lakh spent on the failed journey. “We have lost everything,” she said. “We only wanted a better future for our children and now we are left with debt and heartbreak.”
Kuljinder revealed that the agent extorted money at every step of Harwinder’s journey, including a final payment of Rs 10 lakh when he was in Guatemala just two and a half months ago.
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Before Harwinder’s departure, the family managed a modest living by farming leased land and rearing cattle.
His younger brother also farms rented land, but their income was not enough to secure a better future. Harwinder’s elderly parents—his 85-year-old father and 70-year-old mother—still work in the fields.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
