Horrifying tales of Punjabi youths stuck in Texas jail

Chandigarh/Jalandhar, April 13
The well-oiled human trafficking network and business, involving the ferrying of hundreds or thousands of Punjabis to North America, is alive and kicking. Unscrupulous travel agents operating from the USA and New Delhi are minting money from these shady deals.

As many as 64 Punjabi youths, who travelled across more than half the world in search of greener pastures, have been detained in El-Paso processing centre (jail) in Texas, USA.

Forty-two of them are on hunger strike against their prolonged detention and the jail authorities’ “inhuman” action of withdrawing communication and other facilities to them. The startling revelations made by some detainees there and their families in the Doaba region of Punjab has indicated that human smuggling to the USA by travel agents from India is going on unabated.

Speaking to The Tribune from Vancouver, Canada, Jarnail Singh, father of one of the detainees -- Amritpal Singh Aulakh of Kanpur village, said that he has already paid Rs 22 lakh to an agent in instalments. “Amritpal did not get a direct flight to Mexico. He had to pass through Dubai, Ecuador and Guatemala. From Mexico, he crossed over to Texas, USA, on foot,” said Jarnail.
He said that all the detainees have been observing a hunger strike for the past six days to protest against their 10-month-long detention. “I have hired a legal representative in the US for his release and $9000 have already been paid. He has already lost his first appeal,” Jarnail said. Satnam Singh Chahal, executive director of the North American Punjabi Association (NAPA), managed -- after many determined attempts -- to have a conversation with the detainees.
He said that the youngsters -- in the age group of 22 to 27 years -- were determined to continue with their hunger strike till their release.
“There is zero evidence that any of the detainees has a criminal background,” said Chahal speaking to The Tribune from California.
The families back home are so scared that they are not ready to identify the agents involved in trafficking of youths. Ranvijay Singh, father of Harpreet Singh, said that he has already paid Rs 20 lakh to the agent. He said that he had got a call from his son around 20 days ago.
On the reasons behind his son’s illegal migration to the USA, he alleged that the Punjab police were trying to implicate his son in some false cases on the basis of his alleged links with some terrorist organisation.
“I have already suffered as a result of such accusations in the period of militancy. So, I decided to send him abroad.”
Reaching Mexico -- from where the youths would cross over to the US -- is no less than a tough task. The young men had to walk miles through the jungles and difficult terrain in Guatemala. “Some of them told me that they had reached Mexico via Moscow, Suriname in South America and Nicaragua in Central America. They were huddled into a truck that ferried them to Honduras and Guatemala. In Mexico, they were forced to live in a small dingy room for over two months in an undisclosed small township,” said Satnam Singh Chahal.
Sources in the booming “trade” revealed that there were two major routes -- from New Delhi to Moscow and from New Delhi to Istanbul -- by air. Once the youths landed in Moscow or Istanbul, agents ferried them to Mexico via various countries of Europe or South Africa.
At times, youths (mostly from India and Pakistan) were concealed in containers -- having little air or almost no food and water for days -- for the purpose of shipping them to North America.

Human trafficking

• Victims of human trafficking, 64 Punjabi youths have been detained in El-Paso processing centre (jail) in Texas, USA
• 42 of them are on hunger strike against their prolonged detention and the jail authorities’ inhuman treatment