'Donkey route' flyers knew of risks, pitfalls

The passengers on board a dubious chartered flight grounded in France last month were aware that they were embarking on an illegal route through Nicaragua and Mexico before entering the US on boats, were prepped for any exigency and assured of legal assistance in case things go wrong, and were confident of success because they'd seen videos of people being smuggled into America, two passengers on the plane said on Thursday.

- Leena Dhankhar

The grounding of the Dubai-Nicaragua Legend Airways Airbus A340-carrying 303 Indians - in Vatry in France on December 21 blew the lid off a racket involving private firms and touts that help people reach the US and Canada via stops in Europe and South American countries. To make the multi-hop journey, now known as the "donkey route", the consultancies help create fake documents and paper trails.

A 24-year-old resident of Ding ucha in Gujarat and one of the people on the flight, said that passengers were told by agents that they were to fly from Dubai to Nicaragua, where they would meet another agent, to take them to Mexico, where a visa on arrival would be arranged for them.

"From Mexico, they said we would take an illegal route through boats to reach the US.

Two lawyers had already been paid to take up our case in the eventuality that we are caught at the border. We were asked to travel light, and only take money so that if there was a delay we could survive. They said it was easier on boats if we carried less baggage," the 24-year-old said, requesting anonymity.

"There was confidence because we had seen over 50 videos where Gujaratis had entered the US illegally before."