‘Served me beef when I'm vegetarian; no medicines’: Punjab woman, 73, deported from US after 33 years recounts ordeal
When asked about the food and medicines she was provided with during the flight, Harjit Kaur said that she was just given “some chips and two cookies.”
A Punjab woman who was deported from the US after being there for 33 years has alleged mistreatment after her arrest, saying she was given scant food and no medicine.
“I couldn’t even eat the food they gave because I am a vegetarian. They served beef, which I don’t eat,” Kaur, 73, said, speaking to the media in Mohali, PTI reported.
Talking about her arrest, Harjit Kaur said she was shifted to various locations before being deported to New Delhi. She is currently living at her sister's house in Mohali.
"I was arrested on September 8, and taken to Fresno. From there, I was taken to Bakersfield, where I stayed for 8-10 days. I was then taken to Arizona, from where I was sent to Delhi in a flight that took 18 to 19 hours. From there, my brother-in-law picked me up,” she told ANI about her ordeal.
When asked about the food and medicines she was provided with during the flight, Kaur said that she was just given “some chips and two cookies".
“They didn't provide any medicine or anything else,” she added.
She expressed helplessness about the future, saying whatever has to be done will be done by her children. “I cannot do anything," she added.
According to Kaur, she was deported along with 132 deportees on board the plane, including 15 Colombian nationals. Asked if she was cuffed on the plane, Kaur said, “No. There were two good officers on board who did not cuff me, although the other deportees were cuffed and shackled.”
Asked if she would like to return to the US, Kaur said, “Definitely. My entire family is out there
What Harjit Kaur's lawyer said after her deportation
According to her lawyer, Deepak Ahluwalia, Harjit Kaur was not given an opportunity to say goodbye to her family before her deportation.
He said that Kaur was held at a temporary facility in Georgia, where she was forced to sleep on the floor with only a blanket for nearly 60-70 hours. “She was unable to get up as she had a double knee replacement surgery. She was also denied a shower the entire time,” the lawyer narrated her ordeal.
“Prior to the flight on Monday, she and some other detainees were given wet wipes and told to just clean up before boarding the plane from Georgia to Armenia. From Armenia, she came to Delhi on an ICE chartered plane,” he said.
“Thankfully, they did not cuff her, a process followed earlier. One officer was apparently trying to cuff her, but another said to avoid the process, considering her age,” Ahluwalia added.
Kaur, who arrived in the US in 1992 as a single mother with two sons, had her asylum case denied in 2012. Since then, she “faithfully reported” to ICE in San Francisco every six months for more than 13 years, her daughter-in-law Manji Kaur said, reported PTI.
