Over 2 lakh illegal Indian immigrants encountered by US authorities on their border in last five years: MoS

While replying to a question asked by CPM MP from Kerala, Dr V Sivadasan, Minister of State External Affairs Muraleedharan said that the data regarding the number of Indians, who died while crossing the US border, is not available.

New Delhi: According to immigration statistics published on the website of United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as many as 2,00,760 illegal Indian immigrants were encountered by the United States authorities on their border between 2018 and 2022, the government said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

This information was part of a written response from Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs Muraleedharan while replying to a question from CPM MP from Kerala Dr V Sivadasan. The latter had sought data on the number of Indian citizens, who have been residing as illegal immigrants in the US since 2018.

The Union Minister in his reply provided the required data citing CBP sources. As per data, out of 2,00,760 illegal immigrants in the last five years, 8,027 lived in 2018, 1,227 in 2019, 30,662 in 2020, 63,927 in 2021 and 96,917 in 2022. To a question on the number of migrants from India, who have lost their lives while crossing the US border, the Minister in his reply said, "Data regarding the number of Indian nationals who lost their lives while crossing the US border is not available."

Similarly, while replying to another question from Kerala Congress (M) chairman Jose K Mani, who enquired whether the government has any plans to open a new Emigration Office in the Malabar region of Kerala where most of the expatriates from Kerala belong, the Union Minister replied that "Presently 14 offices of the Protector of Emigrants (PoEs) located in Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Patna, Raebareli (Lucknow), Ranchi and Thiruvananthapuram are functional."

He further added that two PoE offices located at Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi are already functional in Kerala to cater to expatriates from Kerala." On December 8, Muraleedharan presented data in the Rajya Sabha and said that at least 403 Indian students have died abroad since 2018 for various reasons ranging from natural causes to accidents and acts of violence.