A total of 54 Indian nationals with 50 of them reportedly from Haryana were sent back from the United States for entering the country illegally through the “donkey route”.
A flight carrying them landed in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday, NDTV reports quoting Haryana police.
Among those deported, 16 belong to Karnal, 15 from Kaithal, five from Ambala, four from Yamunanagar and Kurukshetra, three from Jind, two from Sonipat, and one each from Panchkula, Panipat, Rohtak, and Fatehabad, reports Business Standard.
Authorities in Haryana said that all the deportees had travelled using the “donkey” or “dunki” route, a network of human trafficking trails stretching across South and Central America to enter the United States. Some had been living there for years, while others had arrived only recently. Several were imprisoned before being deported, the Indian Express reports.
Data indicated that most of those returned are men aged between 25 and 40. The deportees were reunited with their families and that no complaints against agents had been filed. Officials also noted that the deportations followed stricter immigration enforcement by the US government.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, around 2,500 Indians have been deported or repatriated from the US since January 2025 via eight military, charter, and commercial flights. The first of these, a US Air Force C-17 carrying 104 Indian citizens landed in Amritsar on February 5, marking the longest deportation flight conducted by American authorities. Most of the returnees are men from Punjab, Haryana, and Gujarat, reports Indian Express.
