'Donkey' Flight: Passengers from Gujarat Agreed to Pay Rs 60-80 Lakh to Agents to Enter US Illegally

More than 60 people from Gujarati on board the Nicaragua-bound plane, which was returned from France due to suspected human trafficking, agreed to pay Rs 60 lakh to Rs 80 lakh to immigration agents who promised to cross into the US illegally once they arrived in the Latin American country, officials said.

Over a week ago, the Airbus A340, which was headed for Nicaragua and carrying 303 people, including 260 Indians, was grounded in France for four days due to suspicions of human trafficking. It landed in Mumbai in the early hours of December 26.

A top state Crime Investigation Department (CID) – Crime and Railways official stated to news agency, PTI that 66 of the passengers were from Gujarat and had already returned to their respective home states.

These 66 Gujarati residents, including a few juveniles, were primarily from the districts of Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, and Anand, according to Superintendent of Police, CID-Crime and Railways, Sanjay Kharat, who is conducting the investigation.

“We have already questioned 55 of them and recorded their statements. Majority of them have studied till Class 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 said.

So far, the state CID has gathered the contact details and names of about 15 agents who agreed to assist these 55 individuals who were trying to enter the country illegally through the US-Mexico border.

“These agents had asked these 55 persons to pay the money only after reaching 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,” Kharat said to the news agency.

It was also revealed that the agents had also booked air tickets for these passengers and gave USD 1,000 to 3,000 to each passenger to deal with any emergency situation.

These 66 passengers arrived in Dubai from Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Delhi between December 10 and 20, according to the plan outlined by the agents.

These people, following the agents’ instructions, boarded a private airline’s aircraft on December 21 at Fujairah International Airport headed for Nicaragua, a release issued by the CID said on Tuesday.

In order to assist in gathering more information, it was also stated that the CID had written a letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) requesting information about the agents who had obtained the visas for these 55 passengers from Dubai, the bank account information of the agents who had paid the visa fee from his account, the methods by which the agents had obtained the Nicaraguan visa from Dubai, and who had scheduled the flight from Dubai and paid for the passengers’ tickets.

The chartered flight, which was operated by Romanian charter company Legend Airlines and bound for Nicaragua, landed at Vatry near Paris on December 21 for a technical stopover en route from Dubai when the French police intervened.

The conditions and intent of the journey were the subject of a judicial inquiry by French authorities, who sent an organized crime squad to look into possible human trafficking.

Nicaragua has become a popular destination for those seeking asylum in the US.

According to a data released by US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) in the fiscal year 2023, up to 96,917 Indians attempted to enter the country illegally, a 51.61 percent increase from the year before.

At least 41,770 of those Indians attempted to enter the US via the Mexican land border, CBP data shows.

Flights to Nicaragua or third countries where obtaining travel documents is easy have come to be known as ‘dunki’ flights.

(with PTI inputs)