Kurukshetra: Handcuffed for more than 36 hours on an American military plane with nothing but chips, a small packet of raisins, and juice to sustain him, Robin Handa wept when he was finally reunited with his family in Ambala at 12.30 am on Thursday.
“The hands and feet of children and women were tied in chains. The Punjabis were forced to remove their turbans on the plane, and wore them only after landing in India,” he said. Handa was part of the first batch of 104 illegal immigrants that the United States deported to India on 5 February. A bitter and humiliating end to their American dream.
Caught on 22 January while trying to enter the US illegally via the US-Mexico border, Handa never got the chance to experience life in America.
“We were sent to a camp in Santiago where we were treated very badly,” said Handa, who was kept there for 12 days. Then one night he was put into a bus and taken to the San Antonio Airport in Texas. “I saw a military plane in front of us. We started questioning the officers but no one told us anything.”
On Wednesday afternoon, the deportees disembarked from a US C-17 military aircraft at Amritsar airport from where people from different states are being taken to their homes. Thirty-three of the deported Indians are from Haryana.
Handa’s eyes welled up with tears when his handcuffs were finally removed at Amritsar airport. “I saw the sun properly for the first time since I was caught in January.”
Many of the returnees, though, begged airport officials to not send them back.
“Everyone had left with a dream. No one wanted to go back home,” said Handa.
Through sea, rivers, jungles
It’s been a blur of family, friends, sympathisers and well-wishers since Robin Handa, 18, returned home.
“I have not even slept since coming home. I am unable to understand what has happened to me,” he said, sipping on the chai his mother prepared. Handa’s eyes are bloodshot due to a lack of sleep.
Everyone had left with a dream. No one wanted to go back home – Robin Handa
Handa’s father Manjeet Singh paid Rs 45 lakh to send his son to America via the ‘dunki’ route – portrayed in Shah Rukh Khan’s 2023 film of the same name. The endeavour cost him a chunk of his land. While agents promised to send his son to the US in just a month, it took seven months for Robin to reach there.
Robin took a flight from Mumbai to Guyana on 24 July, from where he travelled by road to reach Brazil. He told ThePrint about crossing “the Amazon jungles, seas and rivers” before moving on to Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and finally the US border.
He recalled his days in the Amazon rainforests, where he survived with little to no supplies. “There were 30 people in our group whom our agent was helping to cross the border. These people were from India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Agents used to beat them and did not even give them food,” he remembered.
When Handa reached Peru from Brazil, the local police took $550 from him, he alleged. “It was all I had, and they just snatched it from me”. In Mexico, the police took $2,000-3,000 from them. “My phone was also snatched in Mexico. That’s what the police do there,” he said. “These countries look good to people from outside but their reality is something else.”
Before he could step into the promised land, he was caught. Handa recalled the tight security along the border, the hidden cameras, and the drones on patrol duty.
Robin Handa’s big dreams pushed him onto the treacherous dunki path. He completed a course in computers from the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Ambala in 2019, after which a lack of prospects pushed him to work as a daily wager in Ismailabad.
“People aren’t paid or valued in India. In America, there is both money and value.”
Also read: Meet India’s ‘dunki influencers’. They teach you how to cross Panama jungle, Mexico border
Cadavers, confinement, torture
Khushpreet Singh and Robin Handa left for America together but went their separate ways after Brazil. While Khushpreet headed to America through the jungles of Panama, Handa took the sea route. Eighteen-year-old Khushpreet from Chammu Kalan village near Ismailabad has been unable to forget his ordeal of 15 days; his voice still trembles, and his hands and legs still shake. “When I reached the US border, there was no one to receive me. The police caught me and put me in a camp,” said Singh, adding that he was forcefully made to clean bathrooms.
“I was kept in a camp for 12 days where I was not allowed to sleep properly and the air conditioner was set to 16 degrees. I could only wear pyjamas and a shirt, and my feet, hands and waist were often bound with chains,” he recalled, his voice breaking. The visuals of cadavers in Panama, probably illegal immigrants like him, still haunt Khushpreet. His journey was torturous from Brazil onward – the mafia snatched $1000 from him, kept him captive for 10 days, and gave him electric shocks.
People aren’t paid or valued in India. In America, there is both money and value – Robin Handa
Khushpreet is the only son in his family who has studied till the 8th standard. He, too, had given Rs 45 lakh to the agent to get him to America. “For this, our house was mortgaged and we took a loan on interest. We don’t know what lies ahead for us now.”
Also read: ‘Oh Meldi Mata, help our children stay in US’—Gujarat village prays as Trump strikes fear
Navigating debt
Robin Handa’s father Manjeet Singh, who runs a motor electrician’s shop in Haryana’s Ismailabad village, said that the agent took Rs 45 lakh in two installments. He was able to pay a portion of it by selling one kila of land, and took a loan of Rs 30 lakh to pay off the rest.
“Now, I have to pay the loan and run the house with a daily income of Rs 500-700. We are badly stuck,” said Singh, adding that the loan’s monthly installments rival a “government officer’s salary”.
He can’t understand why the US and India are still on good terms after the way his son was treated.
“Narendra Modi talks about friendship with Trump while the people of India are being sent back with disrespect,” Singh said. “Our Prime Minister has not done anything. The Modi government is weak. Why did this happen only with India? Why are the Chinese not being sent back like this?” he added. Singh blamed the Modi government for not providing a better future for the country’s youth despite being in power for over 10 years.
“Elections were going on in Delhi and the government did not want any ruckus. This is why the plane landed in Amritsar,” he said, adding that the government would not be able to stem the tide of migrants unless more job opportunities are created in India itself.
It’s been two weeks since Donald Trump assumed presidency, strictly enforcing immigration laws and deporting “illegal aliens”. Indians are the third-largest undocumented immigrant group in the US, with most of them from Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab.
While the trend of going to the US and Canada started many decades ago in Gujarat and Punjab, it is quite new for Haryana. The Director General and Professor of Sirsa’s JCD Vidyapeeth, Kuldeep Singh Dhindsa, said that the immigration rush is just 15 years old in the case of Haryana. “This trend is more evident in the districts of Haryana bordering Punjab,” he said.
Dhindsa said that when migrants returned to their hometowns in Punjab and built impressive farmhouses and properties there, other people were motivated to build the same life for themselves. “The people of Haryana also started doing the same after seeing Punjab and started getting trapped in the web of agents.”
Robin Handa, though, is relieved to be on familiar ground. “The Punjab government welcomed us, and fed us good food,” he said. But now, he doesn’t know what he’ll do next.
“After returning to India, it seems like all my dreams are over. There are no better opportunities in India for youth like me.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly mentioned Ghana instead of Guyana. The article has been updated.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)
Srinjoy
The article mentions Guyana not Ghana. Guyana is a country in S. America that does border Brazil. M
Stop making babies if there are no jobs.
A cursory look at the atlas or google maps would show that it is not possible to get to Brazil from Ghana by Road, as has been reported about Robin’s journey.
Hello editors. I was reading this article and noticed this “Robin took a flight from Mumbai to Ghana on 24 July, from where he travelled by road to reach Brazil.”
This is factually impossible as Ghana is in West Africa and Brazil in South America. There is the Souther Atlantic Ocean in the middle. This statement is impossible unless Robin Handa and others have learnt how to walk on water. Hope this helps.