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The Centre is "seriously considering" enacting a new law to establish a framework which will promote "safe, orderly and regular migration for overseas employment". This move comes amid a row over the United States deporting over a hundred Indian migrants who landed in Amritsar yesterday on a C-17 US military aircraft, chained and shackled.
The tentatively titled 'Overseas Mobility (Facilitation and Welfare) Bill, 2024' emerged from a report presented in Lok Sabha by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, on Monday.
The migrants, 104 in total and hailing from various states, were rounded up in a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration in the US. Among them, 33 were from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh. Nineteen women and 13 minors, including a four-year-old boy and two girls aged five and seven, were also on the flight.
"The government carefully monitors the number of students in all foreign countries, and carefully monitors their welfare in situations of tension. We alert students, as we have done in Ukraine. Whenever there is a situation when we need to run flights, we are prepared. We have contingency plans," said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Parliament today.
Mr Tharoor acknowledged that deportations of illegal immigrants are routine but criticised the US authorities for the manner in which they handled the Indian nationals.
"It's not the first time people have been deported. Last year, over 1,100 Indians were sent back under the Biden administration. But this case has drawn attention because it was done more aggressively," Mr Tharoor said.
The deportations come amid tightening US immigration policies, with an increasing number of Indian nationals being detained for illegal entry. While legal migration pathways remain open, many continue to take high-risk routes through Mexico and Central America in search of better opportunities.