An American military plane carrying 104 Indian illegal immigrants expelled in India on Wednesday, the authorities announced, part of President Donald Trump’s immigration program a week before meeting Prime Minister Narend Modi in Washington.
The migration has been among the main questions discussed by India and the United States since Trump took office last month, and should also run during Trump talks with Modi.
Although illegal Indian immigrants have been expelled by previous American administrations, this is the first time that Washington has used a military plane for this purpose. It is also the most distant destination so far for such flights using a military plane.
The American plane which landed in the holy city Sikh of Amritsar, in the state of northern Punjab, returned 104 Indian immigrants, said Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Minister of Punjab for non -resident Indian Affairs .
Punjab police said 33 immigrants were each of Gujarat, the original state of Modi and the state of northern Haryana, while 30 came from Punjab. They suffered control hours at the airport before the police escort them in small groups in police vehicles.
The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not responded to a request for comments.
The Trump administration has turned more and more to the military to help carry out its immigration program, using military planes to expel migrants and open military bases to house them.
Reuters reported Tuesday that C-17 planes with migrants on board had left for India but would not arrive for at least 24 hours. The flight did not appear on the trackers of public flights, but the local media reported that it came from San Antonio to Texas.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also “underlined” the Trump administration’s desire to work with India to respond to “concerns related to irregular migration” when he met the Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs Subrahmanya Jaishankar Last month.
New Delhi has since declared that he would resume these illegal immigrants after checking their contact details.
The United States is the largest trading partner in India and the two countries are developing deeper strategic links when they seek to counter China.
India is also eager to work with the United States to facilitate that its citizens more easily obtain qualified workers visas.
The Pentagon said that it planned to expel more than 5,000 migrants held by the American authorities, and Reuters reported last week that a flight to Guatemala used for this purpose probably cost at least $ 4,675 per migrant
