'First instance' of US using handcuffs, military aircraft to send Indians back

The US had used restraints while deporting illegal migrants to India, but this may be the first instance of handcuffing deportees through a 40-hour flight and using a military aircraft for the exercise.

The US Border Patrol labelled the operation as a "successful deportation of illegal aliens to India".

Several deportees recalled that they were handcuffed through the flight and narrated their ordeal, including difficulties in using lavatories. Sources recalled using handcuffs throughout the flight and using a military aircraft to deport is a rare one while deporting to India.


Over the last decade and a half, illegal migrants from India were deported primarily through chartered and commercial aircraft from the US. On board those chartered flights were armed air marshals authorised to shoot and kill if they felt flight was endangered, sources recalled. As a matter of restraint, air marshals escorted deportees to lavatories instead of using handcuffs, sources claimed.

Last year, a chartered flight from the UAE via France brought back illegal migrants for the US to India through New Delhi-Paris-Abu Dhabi coordination. Migrants were not ill-treated by the French.

As per US foreign policy experts, the Indian diplomatic mission should handle the matter in a more deft fashion through appropriate representation with the Donald Trump administration and gave the example of the Columbian leader who refused to allow landing of US military aircraft with deportees.