Donkey & donkers: A hush-hush story few fully know | Economic Times

It was sometime in April 2017. Soaked to the bones in a 4 O'clock shower, 30 Indian men — tired, hungry and in mortal fear of wild animals and insects — were walking through the Darién Gap that links the Americas.When they were thirsty they would take off their soggy t-shirts, squeeze them and drink the resultant mixture of sweat and rain water. When they felt tired, they would sit or lie down and hope no poisonous snake would kill them while they rested. And when they were hungry, they would silently accept the reality of having no food and just keep on walking.What had brought these men to those godforsaken parts, so far away from home? As it would turn out, it was the Great American Dream at work: Mile by arduous mile, they were trying to make their way to the States.This is not just the story of these thirty men. Numerous youngsters, a majority of them from Punjab and Haryana, are either planning to embark on a similar journey, or are already at some stage of transportation. Some of them would eventually succeed in their surreptitious endeavour, while the rest would be caught, rounded up and after a long drawn out process, deported.For these young men and women, the American dream kicks in when their job hunts go nowhere and their farm produce fails to fetch a good price. It sets them on a dangerous path where they have to dodge smugglers and drug cartels, and risk poisonous snake bites while groping their way through jungles that are known to house incurable, deadly diseases. What sustains them through this life-or-death trek is the lure of the dollar — the hope of having a better life in good old America.One among the 30 who undertook that gruelling journey is now back in his home in Ludhiana after a failed asylum plea. Manpreet Brar, 22, had lost hope of a good future in India after failing to clear any government job exams even after numerous attempts. "I tried landing a job in the police and army but couldn't secure a spot. My friends who had gone to America were making way more money than I would've made here doing anything, so going there seemed like my only option," he told ET Online. 77818640A dubious honourAccording to the US Customs and Border Protection (USCBP), the fifth largest source of illegal migrants entering the USA from the southwest border is India. Only four countries send more migrants to US — Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.India has had a tight grip on the 5th spot since 2016. It accounted for 3,668 illegal migrants in 2016, 3,135 in 2017 and 9,234 in 2018. The number of Indians entering the US did see a slight dip in 2016-17, around the time Trump took office, but that scare has since waned. The number of Indian illegals seized by USCBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is going up every year, but the number of those who want to take that road is not slowing down.The recent deportation of 311 Indians caught at the Mexican border reveals the same pattern. In a testimony to the undiminished intensity of the inflow, all these 311 were caught by Mexican officials in the span of just a few weeks.One could do a simple inmate search on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website and find a large number of Singhs, Kaurs, Deepaks and Gauravs. Most of them had tried to enter America by stealth.According to a Los Angeles Times report, nearly 40% of the detainees at the Victorville federal prison as of 2018 were Indians seeking asylum in the US.On the Donkey trailThe desire to study or work — and later take residency — in a foreign country, preferably Western, is not new to Indians. Over time, this desire has resulted in thriving Indian diasporas in many countries, evidenced most recently in the large number of Indo-American lobby groups working day and night to get the Trump Administration to soften its stance on H-1B visas.Nor is the idea of illegally entering the developed world a new phenomenon in India. Donkey, the illegal method of entering a foreign country via multiple stops in other countries, is a popular method adopted by thousands every year after they've failed to enter the target country via legitimate means.One need not knock on too many doors to know where this 'donkey' culture has had the most impact. A simple YouTube search on illegal migration from India to the US returns hundreds of video pop-ups of young men — almost all in their 20s — either hiking across South American jungles or crossing water bodies on boats. In an overwhelming majority of these videos, people talk in Punjabi and openly state that they are from Punjab. Some claim to be from Haryana and a few others from Uttar Pradesh & Himachal Pradesh.In her often-cited article on migration policy, journalist Nicola Smith talked about how young men would get in touch with well-funded illegal immigration agencies that employ creative methods to exploit every possible loophole in existing policies. 77818663Why Punjab?The unending stream of migrants, both legal and illegal, from Punjab to North America over the last century or so has now given rise to a situation where nearly every Punjabi has one relative or another in the US or Canada. Those who had migrated between the turn of the last century and the decade after independence rode to success on the back of the then-favourable employment situation, eventually securing living conditions that an average Punjabi in the villages can't even imagine. Their stories now fuel the ambitions of relatives who dream of similar kickstarts.The question as to why every other Indian migrant trying to enter the US is from Punjab throws up a range of interesting explanations — social, economic and at times even political.Many of those who reached the States have applied for asylum on the ground that they fear political persecution in their home country. Experts, however, believe economic and social conditions are the main reasons for this exodus.Nirvikar Singh, Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, thinks that although Punjab is prosperous on average, inequality is increasing and the state is falling in the relative income rankings in India. "Many young men do not have meaningful occupations that they feel are consistent with their social status (as perceived or desired by them). This is especially true among marginal farming families, though presumably the poorest do not have enough to invest in the illegal migration attempt."The factor that most of them officially cite in their asylum pleas, however, is quite different from all these: It's political victimisation.How the operation beginsThe cost involved in illegally entering the United States has been increasing steadily over the years. Currently it usually ranges from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30 lakh per person. And unlike legit travel agency bills, this humongous amount does not cover all your costs. People have to carry extra money to use in scenarios such as getting caught by drug cartels, bribing police and customs, and spending on food in case the journey drags on for longer than planned.34-year-old Kamaljit Kaur, a Jalandhar woman who got deported from Mexico where her American dream abruptly ended, says she spent Rs 53 lakh to reach the US along with her husband and son.Playing on the aspirations of people like Kaur, illegal travel agencies have become a booming business in Punjab. Mohali leads the way with 31 of them, followed by Chandigarh with 22 out of the total 76 in the state, according to the Ministry of External Affairs. 77818684These travel agencies lay elaborate traps to lure young customers. The first step involves making a (false) promise to help them enter the US on education visa. After charging huge prices from the ones who have fallen for the trick, the agencies would inform the victim that his/her visa application has been rejected. By then, the victim's American dream will have reached a point of no return. And that is when the agent slips in the idea of entering US illegally.They are known as 'donkers' in local parlance — stealthy operators who ferry people all the way from some remote Punjab village to the cosmopolitan streets of America, for a (usually exorbitant) fee.After selling off assets to fund the trip, travelling halfway across the world in pursuit of a difficult dream, and then walking under the shadow of death for weeks on run, the realisation that the dream may never come true can be terrifying.The authorities are seized of the growing heft and reach of this breed. Mohali Deputy Commissioner Grish Dayalan says, "We have put up a list of authorised travel agents and are working in tandem with the travel agents’ association to spread the information. But people need to stay cautious and updated to not be fooled."An unusual journeyOver the years, donkers have developed and used various routes to enter the US. Till a few years ago, the modus operandi involved using multiple stops in various countries where agents would get US tourist visas for their clients. After a while it changed to first flying till Mexico and then sneaking into US through the southern border.The next method — the one widely in use currently — is way more dangerous. Donkers now make clients walk the whole length of the Darien Gap that connects Columbia with Panama. People often cross this cartel-infested stretch by marching for days on empty stomachs, fending off venomous snakes and life-threatening diseases.Satpal Singh, a Punjab native, crossed into the US from the Mexican side in 2011, after multiple failed attempts over three years that saw him enter various countries on the way."I was 15 years old when I first tried to enter the United States. My initial attempts took me to South Africa where I stayed at a hotel with others who were also trying to sneak into the US. It was a failed attempt. I came back to India from there and decided to make another attempt, and this time I was sent to Dubai. There I was held for 7 months and had to run away and was only saved by a relative in Dubai who paid 15,000 dirhams to the customs department," he said.It took Singh, who now drives a truck in the US, three attempts to finally hit the jackpot. His third attempt — the successful one — saw him first flying to Lima (Peru) from New Delhi, then taking another flight to Guatemala from there, and crossing the rest via road. "I entered Lima with many others, where we were caught immediately by immigration officials who had an idea of what we were really up to, and we eventually had to bribe our way through," says Singh."The journey from Guatemala to Mexico border was the most arduous one. I was packed along with 20 others in the back of a truck with just enough room for us to stand and were taken on a 24 hour journey in such circumstances. We were unable to breathe at times, and had no water or food. We were told that if anybody died we should simply throw the body out and carry on," he adds.Manpreet Brar, who had to return after surviving the arduous journey, has a similar story to tell. Crossing from Colombia to Panama and then riding dinghies to enter Costa Rica is not for the faint of heart, he says. "I along with 12 others trekked through dense forests in either Colombia or Panama for more than 10 days. The little water we had was over in the first few days. Hiking across mountains and thorny paths in humid weather with the occasional rain that would make the terrain even more difficult, we made it only by God's help."Many like Singh and Brar routinely risk their lives this way in the hope of entering the United States and living the American dream. While he was crossing the Darien Gap sometime this year, he saw dead bodies of possibly those who tried to take that route and paid with their lives, says the recently deported Mandeep.The brutal secrecy of the operation also means inhumane behaviour is never far away on that road. Stories have repeatedly been told about how the sick and the injured are left behind to their fate, on their own.Home stretchAfter entering Mexico, those trying to sneak into the US take refuge in camps set up near the border. Abysmal living conditions make these camps hardly any better than the average prison.It is from here that the final push begins. When the time is right, they first creep up as close to the border fence as possible, and then make a run towards it, and then cross it over if they can.These camps are currently home to more than 5,000 people from across the globe. Water supply there is for less than an hour a day. For food, meat with kidney beans and rice is served.Singh remembers crossing into the US from the Mexican city of Mexicali. "After I entered Mexico and secured a country-out pass which allowed me to stay there legally for a week and then leave, I was flown to Mexicali, a city on the US-Mexico border touching California. Then I was taken to San Diego border which was from where we were to enter the United States," he says.All those who were to cross over along with Singh were taken to a house near the border and had their official documents taken away — a common practice at the time of entering the US in that manner."One room in that house was full of clothes and passports that people were carrying. They told us that we can keep the clothes that we were wearing but no official documents. This is done to avoid being deported in case one gets caught," Singh adds."We were then taken to the border in a group of 20-25. Some Mexican kids accompanied us. They told us to lie down in the nearby grass fields to avoid being detected. We hid there till 11 at night. Then we were asked to walk in a line for around 30 minutes till we reached the border. Once we saw the fence, the kids who had accompanied us pointed towards a light in the distance and said, "America. Run and reach there".Singh and others who entered the United States with him that night were caught right away by the USCBP. Singh, who was a few months shy of turning eighteen at that time, was taken to a juvenile-detention centre while the others, who were adults, were taken to the prisons.---------------Life in the detention centreAccording to the Annual Flow Report 2017 filed by the Office of Immigration Statistics of the Department of Homeland Security, 700 Indians were granted asylum during that year from among the 3,000 who had entered the country illegally.Satpal regards his days at the detention centre as some of the best times he has ever had. "The staff was nice and we were served good food, provided education, given ample amount of leisure time," he says. Singh adds that at the detention centre the primary aim of the people was to help out children. Apart from trying to get in touch with the parents of those who have entered, officials also helped kids get acquainted with the ways of life in America."I was about to turn eighteen but I had given them a different date of birth. They tried to get me in touch with my parents but I refused to call them. I was soon released and my custody was given to my distant relatives who were legal US residents living in Philadelphia," Singh recalls.The story, however, is often different at the detention centres for adults. Cindy Nesbit, Senior Staff Attorney, The Sikh Coalition, told ET, "We have learned of several problems that seem to exist in many facilities across the country. On April 1, 2019, we filed an administrative complaint with DHS’s Office of the Inspector General and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding civil rights violations we documented in both the Otero and El Paso ICE detention facilities."Nesbit, who works for The Sikh Coalition, a community-based organization and think tank that defends Sikh civil rights, says that detainees are required to follow a set of rules and often these set of rules are not provided to them in languages such as Punjabi and Hindi, making it difficult for detainees to follow them. So, many face punishment for breaking them.Nesbit adds, "Apart from these there are religious minorities that are denied the right to pray or even practise their religion. Sikhs are often denied the right to wear turbans in detention centres."The Los Angeles Times too reported similar incidents involving permission denied to wear a turban. Some private detention centres took away turbans from Sikh detainees and then asked them to pay $10 for a turban.Hard road to asylumAccording to latest official figures, over 22,000 Indians — including nearly 7,000 women — have applied for asylum in the US since 2014.Almost all such migrants from Punjab go to the US in search of better living standards and employment opportunities. The average asylum plea, however, cites a very different reason: They request asylum on political grounds.Requesting anonymity, a man who entered the US in the mid 1990s said, "Even in those days we were told to request political asylum stating that the Indian government does not treat Sikhs at par with the rest of India and targets us for fear of another Khalistan uprising."Simranjit Singh was recently released from a detention centre where he had been held up since his detainment last year. His asylum plea states he was a supporter of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), a left to the centre political party from Punjab that has links with the infamous Khalistan uprising. "I was with the party as a volunteer and that made life tough for me in Punjab; fleeing was the only option," his plea reads.Deepak Ahluwalia, a US-based attorney, had revealed to ET an interesting tidbit on asylum pleas. "My experience with clients from Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, UP and Himachal Pradesh shows that political dissidents, minorities, LGBTQ community members and even young people in intercaste marriages are feeling threatened and undertaking the long and arduous journey to seek asylum in the US through Central and Latin American countries,” he said.Fighting a case for asylum does not come cheap, too. Satpal Singh, after entering the US in 2011, is still fighting his case after it was rejected once by a judge who upon hearing him talk to his translator in English thought he must have lied in his asylum plea."I have paid a total of $25,000 in attorney fees and court fees till date," Singh says.According to Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, the average bail bond price in asylum cases in the last fiscal stood at $10,000, up from around $2,000 in 2005.After thousands of dollars and countless hours in courts, most of these immigrants have not yet been able to secure asylum. Permission to work and make a living is provided, but social benefits remain a distant dream.The final chapterHope is the only thing that sustains these wannabe Americans as they spend night after night on the sly on the US-Mexico border, often in sub-human conditions.After selling off assets to fund the trip, travelling halfway across the world in pursuit of a difficult dream, and then walking under the shadow of death for weeks on run, the realisation that the dream may never come true can be terrifying.This is what exactly happened this October to the 311 Indian nationals looking to jump over the fence. Mexican authorities, fearing Donald Trump’s sanctions, sent all of them back to India.Ajay Saini, a 22-year-old from Kurkshetra in Haryana whose family had spent Rs 18 lakh to get him to the US, was caught when he was just a few hundred meters from the border."I tried to go (to the US) in a legal way first but could not secure a visa after repeated attempts. Then, someone who is known to us helped me get in touch with people who had entered through the Mexican border,” says Saini.During his 5-month-long journey from New Delhi to Mexico, Saini had many sleepless nights and battled a number of diseases. All he fears now is how his folks are ever going to repay the money borrowed from family and friends.73-kilometers away, another man is now buried under a debt that he knows will be difficult to pay off. Santosh Bawa had been sent back on the same flight as Saini. He now works day and night in farms to help his family even as the Rs 10 lakh debt hangs overhead like a sword.Saini and Bawa are just two among a multitude of people who fail to make it to the US and are sent back to India. Some, like those who get caught by the drug cartels of South America, end up even worse.Bawa spent 15 days at Mexican camps. He says more than 200 Indians are currently lodged at various such camps, waiting for the right moment to cross the border.Until now, not many stories ended as early as Mexico. Many have successfully crossed the border before getting caught. Many of them were working in the US when they were caught without valid work visas or any other documentation.In November, 145 Indian workers had been sent back from the US for not having valid papers. Some such detainees are tried in the US, and on failing their appeals are sent to countries like Honduras, Panama and Ecuador.For the likes of Bawa and Saini, getting a good-paying job in the US was the only hope of paying back their debts. Thwarted, they now tirelessly work odd jobs in the fields in and around the village. Those who did cross the border and have not yet been caught, tirelessly work odd jobs in one of the cities of America.In that way, the American dream ends more or less the same way for most of them, with a similar final act for those who entered and those who couldn't: A hard, never-ending fight to make enough money to be eventually able to pay off the debt they took on to fund that dream.