Gurugram: The ‘dunki route’ is not just torment in life, it is also torture for relatives in death. For those who take the illegal route to migrate to countries like the United States by hopping from continent to continent, and often through Mexico, it’s not just the journey that is punishing. Even after finally reaching their destination—which is mostly the US for Indians taking the ‘dunki’ route—life is incredibly hard. They have no proper work, no paperwork, and live under the constant stress of being deported, even after mortgaging or selling everything back home.
A lot of illegal Indian migrants don’t make it. Some die of heart attacks, or even by suicide, unable to take the stress. Others have been killed in accidents, and shootings.
This is where an NGO like Yaari International comes in. They crowdfund the expenses and arrange the formalities to send the remains back to India. In the past two years, they say, they have repatriated 55 bodies.
The NGO’s most recent challenge was the case of Kapil Sharma, from Haryana’s Jind, who was in the US illegally, working as a guard at a store in California. On 6 September, he was shot dead after he stopped a man from urinating in the open outside the store.
Yaari International, headed by Dr Jasbir Singh Lohan, a mental health clinician settled in San Diego in California, stepped in. Dr Lohan circulated a crowdfunding link: “I’m reaching out to share about a tragic loss—Kapil Sharma, just 25, was taken from us too soon while working to support his family. Every donation makes a real difference for his loved ones.”
The platform had collected $30,235 till Friday afternoon (IST) which is 60 percent of the target of $50,000. After paying for expenses for arrangements to send the body, the rest of the money will be sent to Kapil’s family.
Kapil Sharma is not the only one. According to Dr Lohan, there is a long list of such youth who have died in pursuit of the American dream. Many of these illegal migrants were aged between 20 and 30 years.
“They died of heart attacks due to the immense stress under which they live and work here in the US after coming here through the dunki route. Some die in accidents while driving trucks for 15 to 18 hours a day to earn more, some die by suicide after finding the conditions tougher than they expected,” he told ThePrint.
According to Dr Lohan, these instances have increased ever since US President Donald Trump initiated the process to deport people living illegally in the US.
“They were already stretching themselves to work for longer hours to earn more so that they could send money back home, and now they are living under the constant fear of being caught and deported to India.”
A hard life
25-year-old Rinku, a native of Alewa village of Jind in Haryana, went to the US three years ago through the ‘dunki’ route. He initially worked at a store, then drove a truck in Fresno, California, and worked overtime to earn more so that he could send money to his family to square the Rs 35 lakh they spent on sending him abroad. On 2 May, Rinku suffered a heart attack and died.
Harmandeep Singh from Durga Nagar, Ambala, was just 21 and had moved to the US in 2024. He was living in Oregon, and had already got a work permit. On 18 August, he too died of a heart attack.
Ashish Mann, 24, a resident of Karnal, had moved to the US through the ‘dunki’ route in 2023. He worked as a truck driver. On 25 August, his truck hit a tree in California State and he died on the spot.
Sandeep Boora, a youth from Gogriaya village of Jind district, went to the US after his family mortgaged their 20-acre farm for Rs 60 lakh. On 4 August, he drowned while swimming in a lake with friends.
These are only some of the cases Yaari International has handled.
Ajay Rana, a resident of Teontha village in Kaithal district, whose cousin Arvind, 22, was shot dead in a California store in September 2023, was among the first to approach Yaari International, said Dr Lohan’s elder brother Ranbir Lohan, who coordinates the arrangements in India.
Contacted by ThePrint, Rana said: “Arvind had moved to the US through the ‘dunki’ route by selling an acre of his family’s meagre landholding just four months before his death. He had just got a job at a store in California and his family was waiting for the money he was to send home from his first salary. But news of his death came first.”
Arvind’s father makes a living operating a tractor at a brick kiln, and the family was not in a position to bring back his body. “During my conversation with people Arvind knew in the US, someone shared Dr Jasbir Lohan’s number. He is really doing a great service. When I contacted him, he immediately assured me that he would help bring the body back,” said Rana.
Dr Lohan explains that Indian youth—mostly from Punjab and Haryana—pay for their transport to the US through the ‘dunki’ route by selling their homes and farms or by taking loans. As soon as they reach the US, they start working at gas stations or stores, working overtime to pay off their loans.
“During this period, they earn up to $3,000 a month and spend just $300 by living in abysmal conditions with 8 to 10 youths in a single room. They also apply for asylum, for which they have to pay a lawyer about $11,000,” he added.
Once they get a work permit, they immediately switch to driving trucks and drive for 15 to 18 hours a day, to earn $8,000 to $10,000 a month. To save money, they eat little, and to stay awake, they drink endless amounts of coffee and energy drinks, all of which takes a toll on their health.
“Driving a truck in the US is not the same as driving one back home in India. Here, the trucks are 20 meters long, and these youths drive them at 110 to 130 kmph. They don’t have the experience of driving these vehicles in America. When an accident happens, it is generally fatal, not only for the other vehicles involved but also for the truck drivers,” Lohan said.
Returning the bodies a complicated process
Repatriation of the body of an illegal migrant from the US to India involves a complex procedure. The procedure is even more complicated when it is an unnatural death, like in Kapil Sharma’s case, whose death was a homicide.
Dr Lohan told ThePrint: “As a first step, the local police and the coroner’s office at the local county level conduct investigations and the inquest. In cases where the police suspect wider ramifications, the FBI also gets involved. Once the police report is issued, the bodies go to the funeral office, where an application is made for the death certificate. The death is then registered in the State office. After getting a non-contagious disease certificate from the county office, the funeral office embalms the body and packs it in a casket based on the airline’s requirements.”
An no-objection certificate is also needed from the Indian Embassy/Consulate. The bodies are then transported to India by cargo flights and sometimes even in the luggage section of normal flights.
After paying for all expenses, Yaari International transfers the balance of the crowdfunding money to the family.
Dr Rajibir Singh, Vice Chancellor of Maharishi Dayanand University, a State University at Rohtak in Haryana, visited Freson City with his wife last year and met some of the youths who entered the US through the ‘dunki’ route and also saw Yaari International’s work.
“We found that the NGO was doing amazing work, not just by helping those in distress but also taking care of their mental health and counselling them to prevent others from following their route,” Singh told The Print.
Singh’s wife, Sharanjeep Kaur, Chairperson of the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) asked Haryanvi youths why did they risked their lives and spent so much money on illegal entry to the US. One of the youths told her that it was the money that others before him had been able to send to their families that tempted him to go to the US.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)