The Foreign Trap
Saturday, 15th September, 2007
A World Tourism Organisation study reports that India is the seventh largest country in the world with a population of 1,095 million, which accounts for 16.7 per cent of the world population. There are reportedly over 28 million passport holders in India and 25 million non-resident Indians living in 110 countries abroad, which constitute the largest segment of overseas population of any country.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which is committed to combating human trafficking globally estimates that about two million migrants cross international borders without authorization every year. According to an Interpol study - Project Marco Polo, India is one of the countries accounting for the largest number of illegal immigrants coming to Western Europe. No doubt, UNODC is commissioning a full-fledged study on the nature and extent of illegal migration from Punjab to Europe.
A multi-million dollar racket in which $20,000-30,000 are charged by unscrupulous agents to send gullible Punjabis abroad continues unabated. There is no dearth of candidates willing to spend Rs 10 to 25 lakh to reach Europe or America via the illegal route. Three startling examples as follows reveal it all.
In 1996, in the Malta Boat tragedy; 289 South Asians, Including 170 Indians from Punjab, found a watery grave in the Ionian Sea in their treacherous voyage of illegal immigration to Europe. UNODC recently quoted the Indian American Centre for Political Awareness in the US to inform that 73 men from Punjab who were duped by employment agents landed in a gurdwara in Tehran after a 1,500-mile journey on foot. Some were so badly frostbitten that their toes had to be amputated. A recent media report highlighted that on June 24 this year, the Delhi Police arrested one Bhupinder Singh with fake visas and passports. Upon questioning, it transpired that he was on his way to Punjab for delivering 300 fake travel documents, including 25 forged passports, 114 fake Visas of Schengen countries, which included seven each of UK, Slovenia, Malaysia and Switzerland, 12 of Korea, three each of Japan and Mexico, 25 of US and nine of Senegal were seized by the police.
Why is illegal migration preferred to the right way? What prompts adoption of the wrong path? Who aids and abets it? Why is it repeated unflinchingly without abandon?
Why do horror stories not deter fellow countrymen? Why do not the mindsets of rural folk change? Why the illegal ventures? Why the law cannot stop them? Why is the path of migrating the legal way not followed?
Where is the law and is it enforced, if it exits in the first place? What then do the police and the enforcement agencies in the government set-up do? Are human carriers and agents of human trafficking proliferating by the day and by the hour? What needs to be done now?
The dire need of the day seems to be in launching a "Pilot Project Punjab" to do away with this cancerous problem, which seems to be spreading its venom in every segment of society. On March 23, the British High Commission launched a successful outreach campaign in 146 villages in Punjab by beginning in Chandigarh. The Italian Embassy has floated its campaign against illegal migration from Chandigarh on August 11. There is an emergent necessity of setting up a comprehensive action plan by creating an inter-disciplinary group in Punjab for cohesive approach to set up ‘Pilot Project Punjab’ as an innovative step to be first in the country to do so. A publicity awareness programme, cross-country linkages with NGOs and mass mobilization of information backed by an effective investigation team is required in the State. The lucky ones who returned must narrate their horror stories for the benefit of others to tell them about the other illegal immigrants who had frozen to death, were killed by smugglers or have disappeared because they live in captivity as illegal aliens abroad. Those who survived must tell their brothers that illegal migration is wrong.
The government machinery in Punjab now needs an awakening to improve the plight of people who have an innate desire or urge to migrate. They do not know where to go, how to go, when to go and through whom to go. If the foreign missions and Embassies in India are now doing an outreach by coming to Chandigarh the government must take advantage of it. The Canadians have a Consulate in Chandigarh. The German Embassy is the first Schengen country to open its VFS office in Chandigarh on August 4. The British High Commission and the Italian Embassy have educative campaigns in place. VFS, through its offices, offers all facilities in Chandigarh and Delhi for obtaining visas to most countries.
Would it not be in place if an agency or the department of the government takes upon itself the task of disseminating information about channels of legal migration, processing and forwarding their applications and arranging employment through Indian Embassies abroad in countries which attract maximum migration? This alternative channel can replace the risky path shown by dubious agents for exorbitant sums of money extracted by selling land, mortgaging property; taking loans or disposing of assets. The need of the hour is to create a set-up officially to take advantage of the changing climate offered by foreign missions who now offer the right and legal options.
