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Punjab Police seek details of passengers deported from France
Police officials said it is premature to term all 276 persons as victims of human trafficking as there may be people who paid lakhs of rupees knowing the risks involved in illegal immigration while the presence of genuine visitors among them can also not be ruled out.
Punjab Police have approached immigration authorities to get documentary details to identify Punjab residents, who were deported from France early this week on the suspicion of the alleged attempt of organised immigration racket.
Police officials said it is premature to term all 276 persons as victims of human trafficking as there may be people who paid lakhs of rupees knowing the risks involved in illegal immigration while the presence of genuine visitors among them can also not be ruled out.
Ferozepur superintendent of police (investigation) Randhir Kumar, who is heading the Punjab police’s four-member special investigation team (SIT), said on Sunday that the police are treating all passengers as victims of human trafficking.
“We appeal to all such people to approach anti-human trafficking units in their respective districts or contact the Ferozepur police control room to share details on how they were travelling from Dubai. It will help us in nailing the culprit agents,” said Kumar, who had earlier headed another SIT probing the trafficking of Punjabi women to Oman.
Preliminary information gathered by the state police authorities indicates that the number of people from Punjab and Haryana among deported passengers was less than 100.
Inputs also hint that there were cases where spouses were accompanied by their children. Most deported passengers are less than the age of 30 and the document details with the immigration officials may give a tip if their visa for Nicaragua was genuine and how they managed to secure it, said an official.
“Issue of illegal immigration where people pay huge amounts to unscrupulous agents is not new to Punjab. Such people, with the agents and their middlemen, prepare forged documents to obtain visas from various countries fraudulently. Once the passport details of the Punjabi passengers are secured, police’s SIT may get assistance in contacting individuals to reach any conclusion,” said a functionary engaged in airport immigration on the condition of anonymity.
The official further said the SIT may trace a possible agent among the travellers deported by the French authorities.
“It has been observed in the past that an accomplice of a travel agent accompanies illegal immigrants for smooth operation of an organised racket to drop their ‘clients’ at the identified destinations. The carrier may be zeroed in by going through the travel history of the dubious individual on the Dubai-Nicaragua air route,” he added. But official complaints by the ‘victims’ in police statement will be crucial to get to the bottom of the case, a police official said.
“A travel agent, usually unregistered, works in collusion with a web of middlemen to target the vulnerable people keen to go abroad. It is a tough task to bust as usually the victims prefer to get back their money than taking legal proceedings to a logical conclusion,” said the official.
A leading licensed travel agent from a Malwa district said tracking down the masterminds is a herculean task. “Illegal immigration is a well-oiled international racket where the masterminds work incognito. Moreover, people themselves pay hefty amounts in cash to land in different countries illegally. In my professional career of nearly two decades, I have not seen where a mastermind is taken to task legally. In this case, too, the SIT may face a challenge to hunt the unscrupulous agents,” he added.
