Donkey flights: Illegal migration from Punjab, Haryana in spotlight

New Delhi: Young Indians illegally migrating for better prospects is back in the news after a flight carrying Indians grounded in France a fortnight ago.

Alongside, a plane, suspected of human trafficking, was rerouted to India, according to NDTV.

Now that the situation is more rampant, a derisive phrase ‘Donkey Flight’s is in use suggesting illegal migration.

The phrase, according to the report, is corruption of the Punjabi word ‘dunki’, which means hopping from one place to another.

A 2009 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said that annually more than 20,000 young men and women from Punjab try illegal migration.

Fast forward to today, the numbers may have only increased considering the intercepted flight and other indicators.

The Punjab Police have issued over 10 lakh Police Clearance Certificates (PCC) since 2012 suggesting huge uptick in aspirants to move abroad.

The Home Minister Haryana has said on Saturday that Special Investigation Team made 518 arrests after handling about 645 cases.

Illegal migration is not easy as it is often risky of landing in jail alongside involving huge cost.

NDTV quoted a man named Rahul, resident of Haryana’s Kurukshetra, narrating his harrowing migration efforts month ago.

‘On April 8, they sent me first to Dubai and then to Egypt and was told that I will be sent to Libya from where I will have a direct flight,’ he was quoted as saying.

He ended up in Libya but found the cost too high and landed in jail.

‘The people in the jail protested seeing me like this and tried to break the jail. Then I was taken to the hospital. As soon as I came to my senses, I was taken by the people of the Embassy and after making a white passport, I was brought to India,’ he was quoted as saying.

In another example Shiv Kumar, living in Kaithal, is struggling to get his son back from Portugal after he had sent him there mortgaging his land.

A travel agent told NDTV there are two kinds of illegal routes to send people abroad the first being forest, which is less expensive costing 30-40 lakhs with Turkey beign the transit point.

The second is the travel is by air, costing around ₹ 40 to 50 lakh, to any European country.

Punjab and Haryana began cracking down on fake travel agents with Punjab forming a Special Investigation Team to probe the issue, according to the report.