As the Ahmedabad CID makes headway into the human trafficking probe surrounding the plane incident in France, it has come to the fore that 66 people from Gujarat, who were on the plane to Nicaragua, had agreed to pay Rs 60-80 lakh to immigration agents to illegally cross into the US.
The flight from Dubai to Nicaragua had 303 passengers on board who were stopped by authorities in France’s Vatry airport on December 21 over suspicions of human trafficking. After the passengers were questioned by authorities there, the flight was allowed to leave and landed in Mumbai on December 26.
Only 276 of the original 303 passengers returned to Mumbai as 27 people, including two minors, expressed their wish to apply for asylum in France.
Superintendent of Police, CID – Crime and Railways, Sanjay Kharat, investigating the case, said the 66 Gujarat natives, including some minors, were mainly from Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Anand districts.
“We have already questioned 55 of them and recorded their statements. The majority of them have studied till classes 8 to 12. Each of them admitted that they had agreed to pay Rs 60 lakh to Rs 80 lakh to the local immigration agents to help them cross into the US illegally after reaching Nicaragua via Dubai,” he was quoted as saying.
The probe agency has also acquired the names and contact numbers of nearly 15 agents who had promised to help these persons enter the US illegally through the US-Mexico border.
According to the official, the agents told the Gujarat natives that they would have to pay the money only after they reached the US.
“The agents had told the passengers that their men would take them to the US border from Nicaragua and then help them cross the border. It was also revealed that the agents had also booked air tickets for these passengers and gave USD 1,000 to 3,000 (approx Rs 83,300 to Rs 2.5 lakh) to each passenger to deal with any emergency situation,” said Kharat.
As per the plan devised by the agents, the 66 passengers reached Dubai from Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Delhi between December 10 and 20. Afterwards, they boarded the Nicaragua-bound aircraft in Dubai on the directions of the agents, according to a release by the CID.
The CID has also written to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to help it collect more information about the agents who had acquired the Dubai visa of these 55 passengers, bank details of agents who had paid the visa fee from their account, how the agents managed to acquire visa of Nicaragua from Dubai and who booked the flight from Dubai and paid money for the tickets of passengers.
Nicaragua has become a popular destination for those seeking asylum in the US. Flights to Nicaragua or third countries where obtaining travel documents is easy have come to be known as ‘dunki’ flights.
According to data by the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), 96,917 Indians attempted to enter the US illegally in the financial year 2023. Of these, at least 41,770 attempted to enter the US via the Mexican land border, the data showed.
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