India, Feb. 6 -- A total of 15,756 illegal Indian immigrants have been deported to India from the US since 2009, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Making a statement in the Upper House after opposition parties stepped up their criticism over the treatment meted out to 104 illegal Indian immigrants who landed in Amritsar on Wednesday in a US military plane, Jaishankar asserted that the process of deportation has been ongoing for several years and is not new.

Citing data available with Indian law enforcement authorities, the minister said in 2009, 734 were deported, 799 in 2010, 597 in 2011, 530 in 2012, and 550 in 2013.

As per Jaishankar's statement, in 2014 when the NDA government came to powe...