According to US Customs and Border Protection data, 60,000 Indians entered the country illegally in 2021–2022—an increase of 109% over the 30,662 who did so the year before. In 2022, 683 Indians arrived illegally on UK shores in small boats, a significant rise from the 67 people who did so in 2021, according to the UK Home Office.
These numbers portray a bleak image when combined with accounts of Indians dying or being tricked while attempting to enter first-world countries illegally. When TheSwipeUp made the decision to investigate further, the situation was extremely unsettling.
Most illegal immigration cases have been associated with immigrants from Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, and most recently Uttarakhand. To go through illicit channels, sometimes known as "donkey routes," they pay agents or "donkeys" between Rs. 45 and 50 lahks. Many of them sell or mortgage their land to pay for perilous trips abroad.
Sources from the Punjab Police revealed to News9 Plus that illegal immigration from the state has increased by 40% in the past year.
Yuvraj Rana, a businessman who has traveled illegally to numerous nations in the aim of finally settling in the UK, declared that "there is nothing left in Punjab, only drugs and radicalism."
"My agent sent me to Georgia. Later, I requested that my agency move me to Turkey in search of greater chances. I traveled riskily by bus. We spent many hours in a bunker beneath the bus seats without food or drink. Then I made the decision to take a speed boat to Greece. But the police there caught me," Rana remembered.
Rana attempted to enter Italy illegally, but the coast guard apprehended him as well. He eventually entered France a year later, from where he made repeated fruitless attempts to reach the UK. According to our fieldwork, similar narratives can be found in many Punjabi households.
The Ministry of External Affairs' committee on illegal immigration member Professor Amarjiva Lochan stated, "For the last 7-8 years, India has consistently been in the top five on the list of illegal immigrants."
Four Native Americans died in a blizzard in January 2022 while attempting to cross the border from Canada to the US on foot. Another family with two children perished in the St. Lawrence River in Canada in April 2023 while attempting to enter the US against the law.
A farmer from Haryana named Shiv Kataria had aspirations of settling in the US but was tricked instead. "I was promised that in the US, I would make at least Rs. 5–6 lakh every month. I paid the travel agency Rs 20 lakh in exchange for her assistance. I had no idea what papers he wanted me to sign. I later learned that he had duped me into signing a stamp document that gave him the title to my land. I lost my lands and my money, he claimed.
The applicants continue to be unmoved in their efforts to reach Western shores at all costs, despite numerous incidents of deceit, deportation, or worse.
"Those who don't want to go through the process of learning English and passing tests or believe it will delay them," Arpita Sharma from Overseas Consultancy, Jalandhar, told News9 Plus, "offer us hefty sums of money to send them via illegal routes."
Aspiring immigrants from Gujarat seem to have a different motive than those from north India. "The Gujarati diaspora is significant overseas... Simply enough, when someone succeeds in the West, it encourages more people to follow suit, according to Gujarati education consultant Vaishali Shah.
