How Indians get to US illegally — visa-free trip to Ecuador, trek through forest drug den

The use of illegal backdoor routes into a country is known as a 'donkey flight', a popular escape path for Indians hoping to immigrate to the US.

A recent US study showed there are close to 6.3 lakh illegal Indian immigrants in the US. (Representational Image) | Bloomberg

New Delhi: US President Donald Trump said this week that his administration would start deporting “millions of illegal aliens” from the country next week, vowing to make good on a campaign promise considered crucial to his 2016 win.

While Indian-Americans have emerged as one of the country’s most illustrious and educated ethnic groups, the US is believed to house lakhs of illegals from India who face the risk of deportation amid Trump’s fresh crackdown on unauthorised residents.

According to a Pew Research Center study, there were over 1 crore (10 million) unauthorised immigrants in the US as of 2017, of which 15 lakh are believed to be Asians.

Another study, conducted by the US-based advocacy group South Asian Americans Leading Together, pegs the number of illegal Indian aliens at 6.3 lakh, up 72 per cent since 2010.

The desperate attempts often made by Indians to escape to the US hit home last week when Gurpreet Kaur, a six-year-old girl from Punjab, died in a sizzling Arizona desert near the US-Mexico border while her mother was away looking for water.

Gurpreet, who was travelling with her mother and eight-year-old sister, was one of thousands of Indians who are made to undertake arduous journeys through dense forests and criminal dens before they reach the US.

Firing the entire operation are ruthless agents who charge their customers lakhs of rupees for the journey, and often drop them at remote areas to avoid detection by the US Customs and Border Police (CBP), putting migrants at risk of dehydration and heat exhaustion, which is believed to have killed Gurpreet.

In 2018, almost 9,000 Indian nationals were apprehended on the US-Mexico border while trying to cross over illegally, according to CBP figures, compared to just under 3,000 in 2017 and 76 in 2007.

A difficult journey

The use of illegal backdoor routes into a country is known as a ‘donkey flight’, which has emerged as a popular escape path for Indians hoping to immigrate to the US and even Europe.

This often involves paying huge sums of money to a visa agency for a tourist visa to an intermediate country, from where an arduous onwards journey begins for the intended destination.

These agencies also provide other services, including connecting migrants to human smugglers for passage through borders, and advice on legal loopholes that can be exploited to avoid deportation.

A common route for illegal immigrants starts from Ecuador — which allows visa-free entry to the nationals of India and over 180 other countries.

Once in the South American country, the migrants face a thousands-of-kilometres long journey over land, which involves crossing the Darien Gap, a dense jungle spanning 100 kilometres between Panama and Colombia that has no roads or government presence.

This is considered one of the most dangerous areas in the world, as it is frequently used by drug traffickers and guerrilla groups. Kidnappings and assaults are common in this area, in addition to the risks posed by the challenging terrain and wildlife.

Despite all this, many of the immigrants don’t reach their final destination, or are deported when they do, losing their life savings in the process.

Where the immigrants come from

The majority of immigrants apprehended at the US-Mexico border are nationals from the former’s immediate southern neighbour, besides countries comprising the ‘Northern Triangle’ of Central America — Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador — most of them fleeing political instability and regional violence.

Outside of Latin America, South Asian countries account for the highest number of apprehensions.

“The number of migrants being apprehended at the border from other continents has already doubled compared to last year,” Jessica Bolter, research assistant at the US think tank Migration Policy Institute, told CNN.

Bolter also noted how the demographics of migrants had changed in recent years, with unaccompanied children and families making up the majority of apprehensions now instead of unaccompanied men.

This trend also reflects the changing motivations of migrants: Unaccompanied men are believed to make the journey in search of economic opportunities, hoping to send money back to their families, while migrant families are motivated by educational opportunities for their children and the prospects of reuniting with relatives that have already made the journey.