By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Chandigarh : He may not be the proverbial beast of burden as his moniker suggests, but he bears the load of aspiration. Thousands of ‘donkis’ recall with horror their journey from Punjab to Europe in search of a better life.
Donki – a term devised by the immigrants from Punjab and their unscrupulous travel and immigration agents – is used to describe the youth who crosses eastern Europe to the European Union on foot.
And 16 such men – all illegal immigrants from Punjab – were squeezed into a panel on the roof of a bus for 18 hours. When they were pulled out on reaching the European Union, one of them was dead.
“We could not move at all. The saving grace was the holes in the roof through which we could breathe. I thought that I would die. When we were finally taken out, one from our group was dead,” said one of them who did not want to be identified.
He and his fellow migrants are the new generation of the “boat people” (derived from the Cuban immigrants who had fled to America on boats), who are willing to risk death for a better life abroad.
“Over 15,000 youths from Punjab are languishing in prisons overseas, including over 1,500 in harshest possible conditions in the prisons at Kiev in Ukraine,” said Congress legislator from Punjab Jassi Khangura. They were intercepted while trying to cross over.
Khangura, who gave up his British citizenship last year after living in Britain for 35 years to contest assembly elections in Punjab, said the state government was not ready to nip the illegal immigration racket in villages and towns of Punjab – the happy hunting ground of touts and agents.
“The Punjab government spent millions this month to host select NRIs, ignoring the plight of thousands of illegal Punjabi youth facing death and inhuman prison terms across Eastern Europe,” Khangura told IANS.
The ordeal that youths from Punjab go through to get a “non-resident Indian” tag was highlighted in a documentary “Shores Far Away” by Savyasaachi Jain in a seminar on illegal immigration in London November 2007. Khangura attended it.
Thousands of youths leave Punjab in search of jobs abroad every year, flush with dollar and euro dreams. But they end up as “donkis”, scattered across the continent doing menial jobs.
The journey is a test of human endurance. The immigrants walk through forests, snow, river waters and brave natural obstacles to reach the destinations of their dreams. But back home in Punjab, they are ridiculed. “It’s called ‘kabootarbazi’ (flight of pigeons) in our state,” says a Punjabi youth, a wannabe NRI.
The International Organization for Migration said in its report last year that one out of every three international migrants is from India.
President of Punjab-based Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) and former central minister for social welfare Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, who was at the forefront of the crusade against illegal immigration and fake travel agents in Punjab, said: “Many have been killed in various countries and their families have not even been able to recover the bodies.
“The travel and immigration agents are ruthless – they leave the helpless young men to fend for themselves, even to die, after charging them millions of rupees. Many are still on the missing list,” Ramoowalia pointed out recently.
Punjab Police get several complaints against unscrupulous immigration agents every day, but they have not been able to curb illegal migration. The Prakash Singh Badal government says it is bringing a new law to rein in the fake agents but people are sceptical about its implementation.
“Ask any sarpanch (village headman) who the local (travel) agents are and you will get a detailed reply, including the creditability report on each one of them. These agents should be charged with murder for causing loss of life,” Khangura said.