GUJARAT'S SECRET HUMAN PIPELINE

Illegal immigration from Gujarat to the US is on the rise. Hopefuls risk death, exploitation and human traffickers to reach the promised land

- Kiran D. Tare in Gujarat

A 15-feet-high archway with murals of mounted warriors is a dead giveaway of the dominant community in Dingucha village in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district. The state’s Patel community usually erects these structures to commemorate their warrior ancestors. The village, just 60 km from the state capital Gandhinagar, has a population of around 3,500. Most of them live in double-storeyed concrete houses, with Royal Enfield bikes and Bolero SUVs parked outside. Several families from here have migrated to the United States over the past few years, but they haven’t forgotten their roots. The village has a health center, a high school and a grand three-storeyed Ram temple, all of them built from grants, or what sarpanch Madhurji Thakor calls “NRI money”.

On January 19, it was this American connect that fetched Dingucha international attention. Four residents of the village—Jagdish Patel, wife Vaishali, daughter Vihangi, and son Dharmik— were found frozen to death over 11,000 km away in Manitoba on the Canada-US border. They had reportedly planned to walk into the US with 11 other Gujaratis, without valid documents. They wore heavy winter coats, masks, and gloves to protect them from temperatures which fell 35 degrees below freezing but were tragically separated from the larger group. The family “faced not only the cold weather but endless fields, large snowdrifts, and complete darkness”, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) assistant commissioner Jane MacLatchy told the media on January 22. Their bodies were found just a kilometer away from the US border. The family had set out from Gujarat to Canada on valid tourist visas in late December.