Obsessed to have a share of the great American dream, two more persons from Gujarat have landed in trouble by trying to sneak illegally into the country.
The case adds to the list of illegal migrants from the state lured in the trap of a better life in the US and taking the wrong route for the same.
The latest of such migrants caught are 22-year-old Devarsh Shah from Mehsana and 23-year-old Seema Lakhwara from Mansa, Gandhinagar, who were deported from Cairo, Egypt, after being caught with a forged Cuban visa on their passports. What raised suspicion was the date of issuance on the visas. The documents mentioned it as September 18, while the two left for Cairo from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on September 8, from where they were to board a flight to Amsterdam onward to Cuba in the hope of obtaining Cuban nationality.
According to an IGI airport police officer, the accused arrived at Cairo airport on the morning of September 9. Here, they were denied boarding their onward flight to Amsterdam after an officer found the counterfeit Cuban visas.
“During scrutiny of their travel documents, it was found that counterfeit Cuban visas issued on September 18, 2023, were pasted on the seventh page of their passports,” the case FIR reads. The two were deported on September 10 and arrived back at the IGI airport’s international terminal on September 11. IGI airport police have booked them for cheating, forgery for the purpose of cheating and fraudulently using a forged document as genuine.
Sources privy to the development said Patel and Lakhwara were promised that they will be granted Cuban nationality upon reaching the country via Amsterdam. Obtaining Cuban nationality makes it easier for illegal migrants to seek asylum in the US, said a source. IGI airport police have also launched a hunt for the human smugglers from North Gujarat and Delhi who provided the forged visas.
Gujarat has been in the limelight due to the increasing number of illegal migration cases.
In January 2022, four members of a family from Gandhinagar froze to death while crossing the Canada-US border. In December 2022, a man from Gandhinagar died while climbing the Trump wall on the US-Mexico border with his family.
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