Post-COVID-19 risking their lives more Indians try to enter the US and Canada illegally

The deadly journey takes typically 6-8 days when the weather is normal, as most of the time it is raining and the travel time goes up to more than 10 days. (PTI/File)

The number of young Indians trying to get to their land of dreams – the United States of America, has gone up by almost 60 per cent. This is based on the data of US Customs and Border Protection. Compared to the un-documented traffic from India in 2020 during global lockdown due to corona virus pandemic was just about 624. And now the new data indicates that the number has gone up by another 400 young men who are mostly from North India.

As soon as the US borders opened up for traffic, according to reports, there has been a surge in number of un-documented people from Central American countries including El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Post-COVID the number of illegal migrants has gone up from countries including Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti too.

And, as has been reported by Financial Express Online earlier, these people move through the most inhospitable terrain of Darien Gap which is located on the border between Colombia and Panama. And all these people move in groups and have paid a lot of money to the illegal human traffickers, and they are always in danger of being used as narco-traffickers. Do all these large numbers ever reach their final destination? No. According to experts, not all are able to make it to the US borders as they either get killed, or drown, or are abandoned by their traffickers.

“Lawless wilderness on the border of Colombia and Panama is the Darién Gap. The whole journey through this gap has to be undertaken either on foot or by small boats. There is a presence of large number of deadly snakes, mosquitoes, and other harmful tropical insects and combine this with the anti-government guerrillas,” explains Sandeep Wasnik, Independent Latin America and Caribbean Countries Market Expert.

“This unfriendly stretch attracts traffic of humans from Asian countries like India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka as well as Pakistan. Also, there are a large number of people pushing their way to the US from not only Cuba, Venezuela, but from the Caribbean islands too. And not all are heading to the US; they are also trying to cross into Canada, risking their lives,” he adds.

More about Darien Gap

The deadly journey takes typically 6-8 days when the weather is normal, as most of the time it is raining and the travel time goes up to more than 10 days.

The migrants who travel in groups get off the buses in small towns of Turbo or Necoclí in Colombia and those are the two points when their journeys start. And the first point they have to cross is the Gulf of Úraba, and this is the spot where the local fishermen can be hired to help in their onward journey.

“According to the data of US Customs and Border Protection, in year 2021 from January till end of September, nearly 1516650 (1.5167million) people were apprehended at Southwest Land Border, where in year 2020 from January till end of September, nearly 329741 people were apprehend, this clearly indicates that 459.95% increased of illegal migrants in 2021,” says Mr Wasnik, Director, Trade and Investment of Grupo 108.

On the other hand, in these 1516650 undocumented migrants there were 2531 Indian included, this number has been increased by 405, almost 60 percent as compared to data of year 2020, where the undocumented migrants from India were only 624.

Update
In Punjab and Haryana from where the number of youth trying to get in the US or Canada, the local media outlets often publish up dates of arrests and deaths of the undocumented humans travelling.

Why? “We are trying to create awareness for the youth that travelling and paying huge amounts of money to the human smugglers does not mean easy entry into the countries of their dreams,” said a senior journalist located in Chandigarh, who wished to remain anonymous.