The case is now continuing in India. After spending five days stranded at Vatry airport, in Marne, due to suspicions of illegal immigration, the Indian passengers of the Legend Airlines flight began to be questioned by the local police of the different states from which they came, mainly from Gujarat and Punjab. The A340 of the small Romanian airline, with some 300 Indians on board, was grounded on December 21 by the French authorities. The plane was initially only scheduled to make a technical stopover, time to refuel on its route from the United Arab Emirates to Nicaragua. He was finally returned to Bombay, where he landed on Tuesday December 26. Twenty-five passengers, including five minors, remained in France, where they requested asylum.
According to the first elements revealed by the Gujarat police, the passengers who remained stranded in Paris were planning to go to Mexico via Nicaragua, in order to then cross the border illegally to the United States. They allegedly paid sums ranging from 43,500 euros to 130,500 euros to smugglers. These illegal immigration routes are well known in India. They are nicknamed the “donkey roads” from the Punjabi term dunki, which means “to move from one place to another”. For those aspiring to expatriate, the method consists of obtaining a residence permit in a country close to the United States or the United Kingdom, for which it is easier to obtain a visa, before joining the coveted land. .
The incident highlights the dramatic increase in illegal Indian immigration to the United States over the past five years. In 2021, there were some 725,000 illegal Indians in the United Statesaccording to an estimate from the Pew Research Center. A figure that has continued to increase since 2017. Indians are the third largest group of illegal migrants in the United States, behind Mexicans and Salvadorans. The number of Indian migrants attempting to cross one of the borders of the United States has increased more than 10 times since 2019. The US Customs and Border Protection reportedly recorded 96,917 illegal Indian migrants in 2022-2023, compared to 8,027 in 2018-2019. The majority attempt to cross from the southern border, from Mexico.
Many dramas
Several tragedies have shaken Indian public opinion in recent years. In April 2023, a family from Gujarat was found drowned in the Saint Lawrence. With a tourist visa in Canada, the parents accompanied by their two children allegedly tried to go to the United States illegally by crossing the river. In January 2022, another family from the same state froze to death a few meters from the border. And, in 2019, a 6-year-old girl from Punjab was found dead in the Arizona desert.
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