BATHINDA: For Navdeep Singh, who is being deported to India from the US, this is the second deportation in eight months. His family spent Rs 55 lakh to try their luck twice, but he failed both times.
Now, his shell-shocked father Kashmir Singh and the rest of family are awaiting him at home in Taranwala village of Mamdot block in Punjab’s Ferozepur district.
Navdeep, 21, who fell ill and did not take the second deportation flight that landed on Saturday night in Amritsar, is now expected in the third US plane arriving in Amritsar on Sunday night.
Kashmir Singh, who runs a small sweets shop, said his younger son Navdeep graduated from Guru Nanak College at Ferozepur and used to occasionally accompany him and work at his mithai shop. However, he was clear that preparing sweets was embarrassing. Navdeep’s family wanted him to get a job, but he decided to immigrate to the US. The family spent Rs 40 lakh by selling an acre of land, raising loans from moneylender and relatives to facilitate his journey to the US last year. However, he was arrested at Panama City within days of reaching Panama and was immediately deported to India in June last year.
Navdeep spent nearly two months at home and then made contact with the travel agent who demanded Rs 15 lakh more if he wanted to try to reach the US again. His family somehow arranged the money, and he succeeded in reaching the US two months ago. However, he was caught within weeks and put in a detention centre on January 27 after which his family lost contact with him. It was only two days ago that his family received information from the US authorities that Navdeep is being deported to India.
Taranwala sarpanch Amar Chand, who was trying to console Navdeep’s shattered family, said that Navdeep was being deported for the second time in a little over eight months, making the family poorer by over Rs 55 lakh.
