2,417 Indians deported from US since January: MEA

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India stands against illegal migration and it wants to promote pathways for legal mobility of people.

Over 2,400 Indians have been deported from the US since January, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday.

The issue of deportations is back in the news after American authorities repatriated Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old Sikh woman from Punjab who had lived in the US for three decades.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India stands against illegal migration and it wants to promote pathways for legal mobility of people.

The US has deported a total of 2,417 Indian nationals between January 20 and September 25, he said.

Jaiswal also noted the case of Kaur.

Once the Indian nationality of any person, who is in any country without legal status, is proved, they are taken back and this is also the case with the US, he said.

"We want to promote legal pathways for migration. At the same time, India stands against illegal migration," he said.

Whenever, there is a person who does not possess a legal status in any country and he or she is referred to us, we do the background check and confirm the nationality, he said.

"Because, then we are in a position to take them back. This is what has been happening with the deportations from the US. As far as visa fraud cases and other such matters are concerned, we want to promote legal migration from India," Jaiswal said.

"At the same time, we want to see how best we can clamp down on illegal migration because that undermines our efforts to promote legal migration," he said.

Jaiswal said the government of India has been working with state governments to crack down on people promoting illegal migration and visa frauds.