And for a Friday having watched the Shah Rukh Khan movie Dunki, some thoughts….. some musings…..
On multiple recommendations, visited the PVR to assimilate Dunki and was amazed how the film – Reel Story was being played out in “Real” life in a suburb of Paris. The movie is set in Punjab and portrays the hero and his friends being mesmerised by the lure of making money abroad. Enticed by many of the villagers who had migrated to UK, the movie’s title “Dunki” actually refers to concept of “Donkey” flights to destinations in the World where obtaining fraud documents and arranging travel visas are all possible by sheer corruption and making clandestine payments. I wish this film is made compulsory watching in all those districts of Punjab, Gujarat and other parts of India from where these gullible young people are lured and robbed of their life savings. Maybe @10% success rate. It’s a human tragedy. Many die in tragic circumstances.
Last week an Aircraft of Romania – The Legend Airlines, was chartered to take 303 Indians from Dubai to Nicaragua. The plane made a fueling technical halt at Vatry airport near Paris and the sinister plot of human trafficking was exposed. Modus Operandi of all these criminal gangs organising these Donkey flights are the same. For a fee, these gullible youth are given IELTS (International English Language Testing Skills), high mark certificates and passports made with tourist visas to Bangkok, Dubai etc. They leave India with much fanfare. Relatives seeing them off at home airports etc. etc. But once out of the country, multiple agents move them from country to country by road, ship, boats, containers etc. etc. and finally the high risk entry to US or Europe. The charges massive and risks are humongous. Each person pays 60 to 100 lakhs. It’s a grave problem and requires a combined effort of Central, State Govts and society at large. To stop this loot and human tragedy, the Dubai Nicaragua flight was finally sent back to Mumbai. But 25 passengers stayed back asking for asylum. They are tutored to ask for asylum on grounds of religious persecution, discrimination, sexual abuse etc. etc.
Illegal immigration via the Dunki route is a complex problem with multiple factors at work. Let’s all help resolve, the empathy way, the sustainable way, the SEEGOS way.