Chandigarh: The Punjab government has taken a proactive step in assisting eleven youths from the province who were among fifteen Indians deported from Australia and arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann confirmed that the group of returnees includes one woman from Punjab, while the remaining four individuals are residents of Telangana, Haryana, and Uttarakhand. The individuals identified from Punjab include Jaswant Singh, Angrej Singh, Satinderjit Singh, Harpreet Singh Sidhu, Jagjit Singh Sidhu, Jaspreet Singh, Nirmal Singh, Gagandeep Singh, Shruti Sharma, Ranjit Singh, and Harpreet Singh.
In a press briefing held earlier, the Chief Minister expressed his administration’s commitment to the rehabilitation of these citizens, acknowledging the severe emotional and financial distress associated with the deportation process. He noted that the state has been focused on managing such crises since deportation trends were previously observed in the United States, and the current priority remains ensuring these individuals are reintegrated safely into their home communities. Mann emphasized that the government is also looking into the roles of unauthorized travel agents who often mislead young people with false promises of legal residency abroad.
The Chief Minister highlighted that those arriving have endured significant hardship and the pain of being forced to leave their lives behind. By dispatching a team to receive the youths at the airport and providing immediate support, the administration aims to mitigate the trauma of their return while gathering essential information to crack down on illegal immigration rackets. The government’s strategy focuses on providing both psychological support and practical guidance for these individuals as they navigate their future back in Punjab.