"Saw Dead Bodies, Spent ₹1 Crore" – Deported Indians Reveal Horror of ‘Donkey Route’

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): America has sent back 104 Indians to their country. The people who were deported and reached India have made many revelations. Jaspal Singh claimed that he was handcuffed and kept in shackles during the entire journey and they were removed only after landing at Amritsar airport.

Singh, 36, a resident of Hardorwal village in Gurdaspur district, said he was caught by the US border patrol after crossing the US border on January 24. A US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal immigrants from various states landed here on Wednesday. This is the first batch of Indians sent back by the Donald Trump government as part of its crackdown on illegal immigrants. After reaching his hometown, Jaspal said he was cheated by a travel agent as he was promised that he would be sent to the US legally. Jaspal said, "I had asked the agent to send me with a proper visa (to the US). But he cheated me." He said the deal was struck for Rs 30 lakh. Jaspal claimed he reached Brazil by plane in July last year. He said he was promised that his next trip to the US would also be by plane. However, he was "cheated" by his agent who forced him to cross the border illegally. 

After staying in Brazil for six months, he crossed the border and went to America, but the US border patrol team arrested him. Jaspal told that he was detained there for 11 days and then sent back home. Jaspal said that he did not know that he was being sent to India. Meanwhile, Harvinder Singh, a resident of Tahli village in Hoshiarpur, told that he left for America in August last year. He was taken to Qatar, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Nicaragua and then Mexico. He told that from Mexico he was taken to America along with other people. He told reporters, "We crossed the mountains. A boat, which was carrying them along with other people, was about to sink in the sea, but we survived." Singh said that he saw one person dying in the jungle of Panama and another drowning in the sea. Singh told that his travel agent had promised that he would be taken first to Europe and then to Mexico. He told that he spent Rs 42 lakh for his trip to America. “Sometimes we got rice. Sometimes we got nothing to eat. We got biscuits,” he said. Another man spoke about the ‘donkey route’ he used to go to the US. “On the way, our clothes worth Rs 30,000-35,000 were stolen,” he said. The deportee said he was first taken to Italy and then to Latin America. He said the journey was 15 hours long by boat and he had to walk 40-45 kilometres. “We crossed 17-18 hills. If someone slipped, there was no chance of survival… We have seen a lot. If someone got injured, he was left to die. We saw many dead bodies,” he said. He said he was always scared whether he would survive or not. 

A Gujarati family claims to have paid Rs 1 crore to reach the US. Another official said, the uncle of a youth from a border village in Amritsar said that the family sold one and a half acres of land and spent a little over Rs 42 lakh to send his nephew abroad. He said, 'He reached the US via Mexico a few months ago.