From parents having lakhs spent on sending their children to the US via illegal routes to those who had no clue their children were in the United States, several stories have emerged out of Punjab and Haryana after a US military aircraft carrying 104 deported Indians landed in Amritsar on Tuesday.
While relatives of those who returned from the US wondered what the future would hold for them now, there were those who took a sigh of relief that their kids were safe as they reached India.Charanjit Singh, the grandfather of one of the returnees Ajaydeep Singh, told The Indian Express that his grandson had gone to the US just 15 days ago and that he didn’t approve of the decision to send him abroad. “But I don’t know what has gone wrong with the youth. I don’t know how much money they spent on sending him,” he said.
Swarn Singh, a farmer, had spent Rs 60 lakh to first send his son Akashdeep to Dubai and then to the US, only to see him being deported back to India, according to The Indian Express. “Money comes and goes, but the important thing is that my son has returned home safely,” Singh, who owns about 3 acres of land, said.
Among those who returned was also Pradeep Singh from Punjab, whose father sold off his land and took a loan to send his son to the US through illegal means.
Parents Had No Clue Their Kids Were In US
Out of the 104 people who were deported from the US, the relatives of two of them, as quoted by the Indian Express, said they had no clue their children were in the United States.The family of Sukhpal Singh, a 35-year-old man from Punjab’s Hoshiarpur, though he was in Italy, where he was sent on a work permit. Sukhpal’s father Prempal Singh told The Indian Express that they had sent him to Italy in October 2024 and the last time they spoke to him was on January 15, when he said he was still in Italy. “After that, we lost contact. We have no idea how he ended up in the US. We were not even aware of him having made any such plans,” Singh said.
Singh said they were hoping for Sukhpal to give them stability by working in Italy. “It makes no sense. He could have settled in Italy. Why did he risk his life and everything and get deported like this? I am really shocked,” Singh added.
Meanwhile, in Jagraon, Muskan’s family were under the impression that she was in the UK. Muskan’s father Jagdish Kumar said she had moved to the UK around a year ago on a study visa, and that they could not get in touch with her for almost the past 10 days. “We have no idea why she tried to move to the US. I am also not aware if she paid any money to any agent for moving to the US,” Kumar said.There was also Sukhjeet Kaur from Punjab’s Verpal village, who had gone to the US through the illegal route to marry her fiance who lived there. Sukhjeet’s relative said she fell victim to an agent and entered the US illegally, which led to her deportation.
The deportees who reached Amritsar on board the C-17 Globemaster aircraft of the US Air Force included 33 each from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh.
