Unraveling a Vicious Cycle: Donkey System
The illegal trek to America is fraught with difficulties and life-threatening threats, from passing by decomposing corpses to living on leaves and bacterially contaminated water in Panama City’s vast woods.
Donkey system: A Mirage!
Folks of Punjab and Haryana, and other parts of the country are insane to start a new life abroad. There are more than 1,00,000 immigration centers promising to send candidates abroad by showcasing a dream life that every youngster wants to achieve. Generally, there are legal ways to opt for a legal route but across the ‘Doaba’ belt of Punjab and regions across, working to unemployment and illiteracy, maximum people select the option of DONKEY.When discussing admissions to the US, it is the most perilous method recognized for the illegal immigrant to enter the US. One prevalent phrase, “Donkey,” is used loosely to represent the manner that Indian migrants can enter another nation without authorization.
From a migrant’s perspective
Punjab Haryana’s citizens are among the top most availed to hop onto this system. The former is a populous state where the livelihood is managed by agriculture. Think and wonder how a piece of land alone can satiate the requirements of young blood? So is the case with the ones who are educated, but the never-ending vicious cycle of poverty fails to provide them with a reasonable job and security. Apart from this, to villagers, it comes as a deal of honor when the family gets to boast about a member living abroad. All these tangible factors have led the con men to formulate a cortie to exploit the interest of those by illustrating the perks of working abroad; however, the truth remains far-fetched. Thus, the racket gets to mint money at the expense of someone’s dream.
Business models
A. Schengian Route
The first route available to immigrants seeking a viable route is getting a visa to an EU nation where the authorities are comparatively forbearing from US bureaucrats. So the agents set out by offering a visa to the Schengen nation for which they charge 10 to 20 lakhs and later promise them to be deported to the US. The deportation sometimes happens in the deadliest conditions, ranging from sending the immigrants in packed containers, trucks or even in warehouse shipments. However, no one guarantees that an immigrant will lose a life if caught in turf wars.
B. The Darien Trek
Another alternative is through “The Darién Gap,” a lawless wilderness on the borders of Colombia and Panama, on their perilous and grueling trip into the Panama Jungle. The jungle is not an awe walk for the ones who step onto this upheaval task of living a dream. The path is nearly a 100 km trek and can take over 10 days without any promise of food and shelter. The socalled elixirs with no food and water on occasion are forced to drink the mixture of sweat and water off their clothes. Risking life, among wilds, there is always a fear of death; the handlers do not care to share these harsh realities for minting money.
C. Sham marriage contracts
However, with plenty of cases coming in the eyes of enforcement agencies, perpetrators have found another way to seek migration by resorting to some alternative methods which are comparatively safer than risking lives in the wild and on uncanny routes. The prominent one is entering into sham marriages which last till the person enters a foreign land. Such marriages aid in the quick acquiring of a spousal visa that is arranged by an agent after charging an extravagant fee for arranging a fake marriage. For visa officers, it is admittedly an upheaval task to detect, especially in Indian culture, where the spouses see each other for the first time while taking vows and exchanging rings.
Remedies
With a rise in such illicit movements, the UK and other foreign nations have become quite vigilant and have simultaneously enacted several legislations to curb such malpractices that seem to take advantage of the loopholes present.
- Governments have come up with strict family reunification rules in foreign lands that entail fulfilling income statements and a probationary period in case of a spousal visa.
- Other than this, interviews which were quite frequent 20 years back have again been included in the visa process to eminent nations. Interviews are background checks that take place in all stages of the application process.
- To address the fraudulent moves, bank statements along with the offer letter of the applied university and college the visa authorities are primarily enquired about. The offer letter assessment is checked electronically to digress from any violating move.
- Moreover, to counteract the bogus letters, deterrents to the same have been initiated by suing people and barging them from entering their foreign land boundary if caught for any negligence and bogus work.
