Deportees lock homes, visit kin to avoid media glare

Many deportees have locked their homes and shifted to their relatives’ places to avoid the media glare.

Of the 104 deportees, 30 belonged to Punjab, with 14 of them hailing from the state’s Doaba region, which has a large number of people settled abroad.

In Doaba, six of them belonged to Kapurthala, four to Jalandhar and two each from Hoshiarpur and Nawanshar.

Their relatives too refused to speak about the ordeal they underwent to enter the US after being “duped by travel agents”.

Of the 104 deportees, 30 belonged to Punjab, with 14 of them hailing from the state’s Doaba region.

Davinderjit Singh (41), a resident of Jalandhar’s Phillaur, had sought refuge at his relatives’ home on Thursday morning. Hours later, he was brought to his home by the police. He has switched off his mobile phone.

Lovepreet and her son Prabhjot – the mother-son deportees – from Kapurthala’s Bhadas village also locked up their home today and went to their relatives’ house.

Lovepreet, after reaching home, spent the first few hours crying.

While two deportees hail from Bariar village in Kapurthala, the houses of one of them also lies locked as the family has moved elsewhere.

A Dogranwal deportee, Vikramjit Singh, has also refused to speak about his ordeal.

Nishan Singh, sarpanch of Bhadas village, said a large number of residents from their village have settled abroad.

He alleged that the deportees were “handcuffed” by the US authorities on the plane to India. “It is a violation of their human rights. Many of them are depressed and fed up with the additional scrutiny they are being subjected to,” he said.

“With more deportees expected from abroad, the situation threatens to escalate into a crisis of sorts as the government hasn’t ensure immediate rehabilitation of those repatriated,” he added.