'Paid 1st tranche in 2020 to embark on donkey route'

The Nicaragua-bound Indians sent back from France after being detained over fears of human trafficking were first supposed to embark on their attempt to illegally emigrate in 2021, and had paid the first instalments to a network of travel consultancies running the racket as far back as 2020.

- Leena Dhankhar

These details were shared by police officials who cited information given up by two persons arrested for allegedly working as agents of the syndicate and the disclosures by family members, who have now sought help in recovering their money.

On Wednesday, a Legend Airways Airbus A340 landed in Mumbai with 276 of 303 passengers, returning from Vatry in France where the plane and its occupants were questioned for four days. The incident brought to light a racket involving 17 private companies, mostly based in Gujarat, that help people reach 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 education certificates, identity documents, job letters and even secure high English language tests scores --- helping people receive transit, student or tourist visas for countries along the way to their eventual destination: US or Canada.

The group that took the flight that was held back at Vatry was the third lot to leave in three months, a Gujarat police official said, asking not to be named. Another flight was scheduled for December 29 and a number of people who had paid to be on it approached police for help after the syndicate went underground following the incident in France.

“They had paid advance amount in 2020 and were promised to fly in 2021 but due to Covid, their money got stuck with agents and they were promised flights in 2022, but eventually left only at the end of this year,” said this official, adding that the two men arrested on Wednesday --- Sahil Patel and Krunal Varia – told them that families had begun to pressure them since they had taken on loans.