Illegal Indian Immigrants
By Shivaji Sarkar
The multi-trillion-dollar illegal profit generating world immigration rackets thrive on freely available private telecom company sims, fake bank accounts, anonymity, negligent or corrupt local policing, darknet networking and greed of the affluent.
This is the finding of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) March 2024 report. It says illegal profits from forced labour has risen to by $236 billion since 2014, implying exponential growth in labour exploitation and weak global surveillance. The ILO report suggests that forced labour is a several trillion-dollar-racket.
The most dehumanised deportation of Indians on February 5 has found the Rajya Sabha in turmoil. The External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s reply justifying handcuffing-shackling Indian migrants and dehumanised treatment of dumping them on the floor of a military aircraft has shocked the nation. It was expected that the EAM would condemn the US behaviour like the tiny nation of Columbia did.
Columbian President Gustavo Petro not only disallowed landing of the military aircraft but also severely condemned the US for treating migrants, who contributed immensely to the US economy like criminals. He says that he wants a dignified travel of his citizens in civilian aircraft. Brazil called handcuffing a “flagrant disregard” for their basic rights.
Still more shock awaited as the minister reveals that the US has been deporting illegal Indian immigrants since 2009 and continued through the Donald Trump’s first term – in 2016 -1308 deportations; 2017 – 1024; 2018 – 1180; reaching a peak in 2019 when over 2042 were flown back and 2020 – during Indian bonhomie with Trump 1889. Over 15000 were deported back to India since 2009.
Strange that the governments never shared it with the people. The governments did little to crackdown on illegal agents except stray actions till the most undignified recent deportation of Indians to Amritsar in handcuffs and shackles on February 5.
One of the earliest references to organised racket comes from 1955 Hong Kong companies that organised travel of Chinese to the US. In the case of Indians from Gujarat, Punjab and some other states the craze for flying to the US, considered an El Dorado, is not a poverty phenomenon but a malaise among the affluent. Each of such migrants spent a hefty sum of Rs 40 lakh and more, selling their land and other assets, to go through dangerous, circuitous routes even losing their lives.
In 2024, a Minnesota district court found Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel alias Dirty Harry and Steven Shand guilty of four counts of human smuggling after prosecutors in the US indicted them for the deaths. He faces 20-year penalty.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), on 19 January 2022, found Jagdish Patel (39), Vaishali Jagdish Patel (37), Vihangi Jagdish Patel (11) and three-year-old Dharmik Jagdish Patel frozen to death some 12 kilometres from the US-Canada border in the Manitoba province. They were among 11 who were made to travel in harsh weather. The incident hit national headlines, as it portrayed the helplessness of the family and the yearning it had for a better life.
The Indian enforced directorate (ED) in 2022, found the firms that worked jointly with colleges and universities in Canada and the US to send Indian people abroad on student visas. The ED says that one firm based in Mumbai referred nearly 25,000 students to colleges outside of India, and the Nagpur firm referred another 10,000 students to foreign institutes. The Mumbai firm also forged partnerships with 112 foreign colleges and the Nagpur one with 150. They function through 5000 agents, with nearly 1700 from Gujarat alone charging every aspirant Rs 55 to 60 lakh.
These firms have attracted people through more than 5,000 agents from across the country, with nearly 1,700 of them from Gujarat alone, and the travel plan costs every aspirant between Rs 55 lakh and Rs 60 lakh.
More recent searches by the ED in 2024 were conducted in 29 locations in Gujarat, Delhi and Maharashtra against agents, who run job rackets. Interestingly, the agents have to register with the External Affairs Ministry. Their details are known but for decades they function with impunity across different governments.
Several thousand affluents immigrated from India through racketeers selling their assets of crores to visit El Dorado of the US or other western nations. Many travel on students visa or travel through dangerous circuitous routes through various countries. Many lose lives but the greed never dies and whetted by illegal firms working across the world.
Corruption is the biggest facilitator in smuggling of migrants and trafficking of persons, says the UN Office of Drugs and Crime. It says such trafficking could not take place without “the aid of corruption”. It implies that national officials should be taken to task. The local police know how the agents operate and not very difficult to crack them down. Some officials hint at collusion of influential people and do not want to risk their jobs.
At Ahmedabad’s Chamatkari Hanuman Mandir or “Visa Hanuman” in Chennai, are supposed to grant immediate visa to the US. The passports are presented to Hanumanji. Are temples also agents? Nobody has investigated. Techies visit these temples the most for H1B visas.
It is a widespread global racket with interlinks. Forged applications for visas from Bengaluru are not new. In November 2014, based on a complaint by the U.S. consulate in Chennai, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) had busted a fake visa racket. Yeshwantpur-based Citizens Comfort Services Managing Director Ravi Tejas was charged with helping clients forge documents using fake letterheads to facilitate U.S. visas for its clients. He charged Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 4.5 lakh to create fake documents in addition to the charges in millions for “transporting” them.
Cyber crime cops blame the freely available “anonymous’ sims as the biggest culprit and wonder why action against telecom companies are never initiated. Multiple sims are issued on fake IDs. They are used by various call centres to further illicit business.
The governments must create awareness among the gullible to prevent such disastrous “yatras” and severely crack down on agents to end the international racket. To say that the US has been deporting illegal migrants in the past is no consolation. There is need for action, concrete action. — INFA