New Delhi, Jan 24 (UNI) With the Trump administration conveying to India that it will like to “address concerns related to irregular migration”, the Indian government clarified today that it is against illegal immigration and New Delhi will facilitate the return of undocumented citizens to the country.
Days after new US Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised the subject with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar during their meeting in Washington on January 21, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said:
“We have made this clear earlier as well, we are against illegal immigration, especially because it is linked to several forms of organised crime.
“For Indians not just in the US but anywhere in the world, if they are Indian nationals, and they are overstaying or they are in a particular country without proper documentation, we will take them back, provided the documents are shared with us, so that we can verify their nationality, that they are indeed Indians.
“If that happens to be the case, we will take things forward and we will facilitate their return to India,” he said.
However, he declined to give an estimate of the number of Indians who could be staying illegally in the US. “At this point in time any talk of number is premature,” he said.
EAM Jaishankar, asked the same question during his press conference on Jan 22, said: “As a government, we obviously are very much supportive of legal mobility because we do believe in a global workplace. We want Indian talent and Indian skills to have the maximum opportunity at a global level. So at the same time, we are also very firmly opposed to illegal mobility and illegal migration because you also know that when something illegal happens, many other illegal activities get joined onto it, and this is not desirable, it’s certainly not reputationally good. So with every country, and the US is no exception, we have always taken the view that if there are any of our citizens who are not here legally, if we are sure that they are our citizens, we have always been, open to their legitimate return to India.“
In October last year, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that it has sent back to India via chartered flight Indian nationals who were staying in the country illegally.
The DHS, through US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), conducted a large-frame charter removal flight to the Republic of India of Indian nationals who did not establish legal basis to remain in the United States, it said.
Since June 2024, DHS removed or returned over 160,000 individuals and operated more than 495 international repatriation flights to more than 145 countries—including India, it said.