The terrifying risks Indians take to reach the US illegally

Indian families have reportedly frozen to death, drowned and been abducted by their smugglers as they tried to reach the US, with the number of people willing to risk their lives in their desperate quest growing.

Indians are now the third largest group of illegal migrants to America.

According to a 2022 report by the Pew Research Center, there are 725,000 illegal Indian immigrants in the US, making them the third largest group after those from Mexico and El Salvador.

Last year, the US Border Protection Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, arrested 96,917 Indians – a number that has tripled in just two years. And these are just the ones who were caught.

They go to extremes, putting their lives in the hands of criminal gangs, to reach the shores of America. Some were kidnapped, others murdered by the criminal gangs who promised to smuggle them into the US.

A couple and their two children froze to death just yards from the U.S.-Canada border in 2022, according to NBC, the U.S. affiliate of Sky News, and other reports. Another family drowned while trying to enter the United States from Canada by boat on the St. Lawrence River, local media reported.

Lucrative scam

The trade is estimated to be worth a billion dollars, with each candidate paying between $50,000 (£38,000) and $100,000 (£76,000) for the chance to reach their dream destination.

The trade is so lucrative and the demand so great that it now involves thousands of traffickers, mainly in the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.

Last December, a chartered plane to Nicaragua made a technical stop at Valéry airport in FranceAuthorities detained all 303 Indian passengers on board, suspecting they were victims of human trafficking.

Joginder (not his real name), a human trafficker, told Sky News: “I send about 500 every season, and there are three seasons in a year.

“Ask anyone who has a big house and they will say their child is abroad. It is a fad, a competition. Families are selling their land, jewelry, even their homes to send.”

Joginder said that (not everyone) “reaches their destination as 10 to 12% die or are killed on the way because they do not pay”.

He said: “The mafia controls the borders. Many wrong incidents happen on the route and terrible things happen to women, I can’t say it here. But they have to go through it to reach America.

“We feel the pain too. For the family that loses someone, the pain is much greater. But both feel the pain. But it’s business, they want to go and I send them.”

‘Dunki flights’

‘Dunki flights’, a Punjabi term meaning ‘route hopping’, is the most commonly used method.

Human traffickers send migrants to countries with relaxed visa rules or easy access, such as Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvadoror GuatemalaFrom here they begin their long journey, led by coyotes and controlled by criminal gangs.

The routes and their difficulties depend on the amount paid. Payments are made at predetermined times during the journey, with the final amount being handed over at the US border.

Indian authorities have recently launched a crackdown on smuggling networks, but the pace and scale are overwhelming.

Ms Upasana, police chief in Kaithal, Haryana, told Sky News: “It is now a culture where people are proud that their child is abroad.

“This year we registered 46 criminal cases and arrested 75 people involved.

“People abroad upload pictures of themselves with big bungalows and cars and the youth are attracted and want the same.

“Children say to their parents, ‘Either I die or you send me.’”

‘I had lost all hope of life’

One of the people who tried, 36-year-old Subhash Kumar, says he is lucky to be alive and would like to undo the few weeks of his attempted ‘dunki flight’.

He spent his savings and borrowed money to pay a gang $50,000. He was flown to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepalwhere he was kidnapped, threatened and held for ransom on the outskirts of town.

The gang used fake boarding passes and visas and filmed with false backgrounds to fake their arrival at the US border. The family paid the final amount to the smugglers.

“They put a knife to my throat and threatened me to confirm things. I had lost all hope of life,” Mr. Kumar said.

“I just wanted to talk to my wife and children for the last time. I was a dead man there. I had no hope.

“They even played airport announcements in the background while we were talking to our families, to show that we had arrived in foreign cities.”

He was eventually rescued, along with ten other Indians, when police, acting on a tip-off, raided the building and arrested the kidnappers.

But many are less fortunate.

‘Killed for money’

Malkeet Singh, a 30-year-old technology graduate, dreamed of going to America.

The family sold property and took loans to pay traders. He traveled to Doha, Almaty, Istanbul, Panama City and reached El Salvador.

He told his younger brother Rajiv that they would start the trek to Guatemala the next day.

On March 7, all contact was lost. Three weeks later, the family identified his body via a video posted on social media.

Rajiv said, “My brother was killed for money. The mafia gangs involved in it robbed them, shot at people and shot him.

“Whenever I spoke to my brother, he said that these traffickers often stole and extorted people.”

The family filed a lawsuit against the trafficker, who was caught and jailed – and eventually returned the money.

Blood money was paid – compensation for the relatives of someone who was murdered – and the family withdrew the case.

For 45-year-old Shiv Kumar, it is an endless search for his 19-year-old son Sahil.

His entire savings were spent paying smugglers, but Sahil’s last message – about the start of the second leg of his journey – came from Libya almost a year ago.

Mr. Kumar regularly scans the news about migrant travel. He has filed a case against the trafficker who was caught and jailed but is now out on bail. He has reached out to all agencies, state and central. The family desperately wants closure.

“Only a family knows what it goes through when their son is lost.

“Every person should have the satisfaction of knowing what happened to their child. To this day we don’t know if he is dead or alive.”

Inequality drives the trend

Although India has one of the fastest growing economies in the world and is the fifth largest economy in the world, there are huge imbalances and inequalities.

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High unemployment, stagnant incomes and rural hardship, combined with the American dream, have led many to undertake these dangerous journeys.

Superintendent Upasana said, “It is dangerous for India that its working class, its youth, our main productive youth are going outside. They are not getting good jobs there. Recently we have found them involved in making extortion calls to businessmen here in India.”

In the Mexican city of Tapachula – a hub for migrant travellers – many people come from India, with curry houses dotting the city. A Sky News crew saw the new arrivals as they waited for the right moment to make the journey.

But with the possibility of a Trump presidency, there is an urgent need to cross the border.

Joginder said: “Last time under Trump, the rules were made very strict. That’s why there is fear among many.”

The legal route to emigration is busy, difficult and slow. Those determined to make the journey are willing to pay any price.

“If I don’t do it, someone else will. This has always happened and always will.”