New Delhi:
Lengthy-haul flights to South America, violent seas in tottery boats, hikes by means of treacherous terrain, darkish cells on the US-Mexico border and a deportation flight again to India – the promise of an American dream fell flat for 104 Indian migrants who returned to India after US President Donald Trump’s hardline stance on unlawful immigration.
Harvinder Singh, a local of Punjab’s Tahli village in Hoshiarpur district, mentioned he was promised a piece visa within the US by agent whom he paid Rs 42 lakh. On the final minute, Singh was instructed the visa didn’t come by means of and was later placed on consecutive flights from Delhi until Qatar after which Brazil. “In Brazil, I used to be instructed I will probably be placed on a flight from Peru, however there was no such flight. Then taxis took us additional to Colombia and additional to the start of Panama. From there, I used to be instructed a ship will transport us, however there was no ship both. That is the place our donkey route, which lasted two days, started,” he instructed reporters.
After strolling by means of a mountainous route, Singh and the migrants accompanying him had been despatched in a small boat into the deep sea in the direction of the Mexico border. Within the four-hour sea journey, the boat carrying them capsized, resulting in the loss of life of one of many individuals accompanying him. One other died within the Panama jungle. All this whereas, they survived on meagre parts of rice.
Darapur village’s Sukhpal Singh additionally confronted the same ordeal, travelling 15 hours by sea route, and strolling 40-45 kilometres by means of hills that had been flanked by deep-treacherous valleys. “If somebody acquired injured, they had been left to die. We noticed many useless our bodies on the way in which,” he mentioned. The journey bore no fruit, because the Jalandhar district native was arrested in Mexico, simply earlier than he might cross the border to enter the US. “We had been lodged in a darkish cell for 14 days, and we by no means noticed the solar. There are literally thousands of Punjabi boys, households and youngsters in related circumstances,” he mentioned, interesting to folks to not strive shifting overseas by means of improper routes.
A US navy plane carrying 104 unlawful immigrants from numerous states landed in Amritsar on Wednesday, the primary such batch of Indians deported by the Donald Trump authorities. Of them, 33 every had been from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three every from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh, sources instructed PTI. Nineteen ladies and 13 minors, together with a four-year-old boy and two women, aged 5 and 7, had been among the many deportees, they mentioned.
Amongst them was Jaspal Singh, who claimed that their fingers and legs had been cuffed all through the journey and so they had been unshackled solely after touchdown on the Amritsar airport. He had been assured by a journey agent that he can be despatched to the US in a authorized manner, with the worth pegged at Rs 30 lakh. He was taken to Brazil, the place he stayed for six months, earlier than being captured by the US Border Patrol on January 24.
Kanubhai Patel, whose daughter is among the many deportees, claimed she had gone to Europe for a trip along with her mates a month in the past. “I do not know what she deliberate after reaching Europe. The final time we talked along with her was January 14. We do not know how she reached the US,” mentioned Patel, a resident of Chandranagar-Dabhla village in Gujarat’s Mehsana district.
Members of the family of the unlawful immigrants from Punjab mentioned they took large loans to facilitate their journey to America hoping for a brilliant future however now face crushing debt. They now search strict motion towards these brokers.
“We offered no matter little we had and borrowed cash on excessive curiosity to pay the agent, hoping for a greater future. However he (agent) deceived us. Now, not solely has my husband been deported we’re additionally left with an enormous debt,” Harvinder Singh’s spouse Kuljinder Kaur instructed PTI.
In Kapurthala’s Behbal Bahadue, Gurpreet Singh’s household had mortgaged their home and borrowed cash to ship him overseas. Whereas in Fatehgarh Sahib, Jaswinder Singh’s household spent Rs 50 lakh to ship him overseas, now should repay loans taken on excessive rates of interest.
It’s pertinent to notice that the Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr districts comprise the ‘NRI Belt’ in Punjab, witnessing massive numbers of immigrations to nations overseas yearly.