The terrifying risks Indians are taking to reach the US illegally

Published

2 weeks ago

September 3, 2024

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Indian families have reportedly frozen to death, drowned and been kidnapped by their smugglers as they tried to reach the US – and the number of those willing to risk their lives in their desperate quest is growing.

Indians are now the third largest group of illegal migrants to America.

According to a 2022 report by Pew Research Centre, there are 725,000 unauthorised Indian immigrants in the US, making them the third largest group after those from Mexico and El Salvador.

Last year, the US Border Protection Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, apprehended 96,917 Indians – a number that has tripled in just two years. And these are just the ones who got caught.

They go to any lengths, putting their lives in the hands of criminal gangs, to reach the shores of America. Some were kidnapped, others killed by the criminal gangs that had promised to smuggle them into the US.

A couple and their two children froze to death just a few metres from the US-Canada border in 2022, according to Sky News’ US affiliate NBC and other reports. Another family drowned trying to enter the United States from Canada by boat across the St Lawrence River, local media said.

Lucrative racket

The racket is estimated to be worth a billion dollars, with each hopeful paying anything from $50,000 (£38,000) to $100,000 (£76,000) for the chance to reach that dream destination.

The trade is so lucrative and demand insatiable that there are now thousands of traffickers involved, mostly in the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.

Last December a chartered plane to Nicaragua made a technical stop at Valery Airport in France. Authorities detained all 303 Indian passengers onboard, suspecting they were being trafficked.

Joginder (not his real name), a trafficker, told Sky News: “I send about 500 every season, and there are three seasons in a year.

“Ask anyone who has a big house and they will say their child is abroad. It’s a fashion, a competition. Families sell their land, jewellery and even their homes to send.”

Joginder said that [not all] “reach their destination as 10 to 12% die on the way or are killed for not paying”.

He said: “The mafia control the borders. On the route many wrong incidents take place, and terrible things happen to women, I can’t say it here. But they have to bear it to reach America.

“We also feel the pain. For the family who loses someone, the pain is much more. But both feel pain. But it’s business, they want to go and I send them.”

‘Dunki flights’

‘Dunki flights’, a Punjabi phrase for ‘hopping routes’, is the most widespread means used.

Smugglers send migrants to countries with lax visa rules or easy access like Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, or Guatemala. From here they begin their long trek led by coyotes and controlled by criminal gangs.

The routes and their difficulties depend on the amount of money paid. Payments are made at predetermined stages during the journey, with the final amount handed over at the US border.

Indian authorities have recently started a crackdown on smuggler networks. But the pace and scale are overwhelming.

Ms Upasana, superintendent of police, in Kaithal, Haryana, tells Sky News: “It’s now a culture where people feel a sense of pride that their child is abroad.

“This year we have registered 46 criminal cases and arrested 75 people involved.

“Those abroad upload photos of themselves with big bungalows and cars and the youth get attracted and want the same.

“Children tell their parents, ‘Either I die or you send me’.”

‘I had lost all hope of living’

One of those who tried, 36-year-old Subhash Kumar, says he’s lucky to be alive and wishes to erase the few weeks of his attempt at a ‘dunki flight’.

He spent his savings and borrowed money to pay a gang $50,000. He was flown to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, where he was kidnapped, threatened and held for ransom on the outskirts of the city.

The gang used forged boarding passes and visas and filmed with false backgrounds to fake his arrival at the US border. The family paid the final amount to the traffickers.

“They would put a knife to my throat and threaten me to confirm things. I had lost all hope of living,” Mr Kumar said.

“I just wanted to speak to my wife and children for the last time. I was a dead man there. I had no hope.

“They even played airport announcements in the background while we spoke to our family, to show we had reached foreign cities.”

He was eventually rescued, along with 10 other Indians, when police, acting on a tip-off, raided the building and arrested the kidnappers.

But many are not as lucky.

‘Killed for money’

Malkeet Singh, a 30-year-old technology graduate, dreamed of going to America.

The family sold property and took loans to pay traffickers. He travelled to Doha, Almaty, Istanbul, Panama City and reached El Salvador.

He told his younger brother Rajiv they would begin trekking to Guatemala the next day.

On 7 March all contact was lost. Three weeks later the family identified his body from a video posted on social media.

Rajiv said: “My brother was killed for money, the mafia gangs involved were robbing them and fired on the people and shot him.

“Whenever I spoke to my brother, he said that these traffickers would often steal and extort from people.”

The family lodged a case against the trafficker, who was caught and jailed – and eventually returned the money.

Blood money – recompense given to the relatives of someone who has been killed – was paid and the family withdrew the case.

For 45-year-old Shiv Kumar, it’s been a never-ending search for his 19-year-old son Sahil.

A life’s savings were spent in paying smugglers but Sahil’s last message – about starting the second leg of his journey – was from Libya almost a year ago.

Mr Kumar regularly scans the news about migrant journeys. He filed a case against the trafficker who was caught and imprisoned – but is now out on bail. He’s reached out to all agencies, state and central government – the family is desperate for closure.

“Only a family knows what it’s going through when their son is lost.

“Every human being should have the satisfaction of knowing what happened to their child. Until today we don’t know if he’s dead or alive.”

Inequality driving the trend

Even as India registers one of the fastest economic growths and is the fifth-largest economy in the world, there is a massive imbalance and inequality.

High unemployment, stagnant incomes and distress in the rural economy coupled with an American dream have led many to take these treacherous journeys.

Superintendent Upasana said: “It’s dangerous for India that its working population, its youth, our main productive young are going outside. They do not get any good job there. Recently we find them involved in making extortion calls to businessmen here in India.”

In the Mexican town of Tapachula – a hub for travelling migrants – large numbers are from India, curry houses dotting the town. A Sky News team witnessed new arrivals, as all waited for the right time to make the journey.

But with the possibility of a Trump presidency, there is an urgency to cross.

Joginder said: “The last time under Trump the rules were made very strict. That’s why there is fear among many”.

The legal route to emigrate is crowded, difficult and slow. Those determined to make the journey are willing to pay any price.

“If I don’t do it then someone else will. This has always been happening and will go on forever.”

US

Titan submersible: New coastguard video shows wreckage on seafloor

Published

11 hours ago

September 19, 2024

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Titan submersible: New coastguard video shows wreckage on seafloor

New video has been released of the remains of the Titan submersible – more than 3700m down on the seafloor.

The US Coast Guard said it shows “the aft dome, aft ring, remnants of the hull and carbon fiber debris”.

It comes shortly after images of the sub’s tail were released.

A hearing is currently taking place in the US about the Titan’s fatal implosion on a trip to the Titanic in June 2023.

OceanGate’s former operations boss told the panel earlier this week the sub was a huge risk and the company was only focused on profit.

David Lochridge also painted an unflattering picture of the firm’s founder, Stockton Rush, saying he would “fly off the handle” and had a “total disregard for safety”.

In one incident, he said Mr Rush crashed the sub into a wreck site and threw the PlayStation controller used to pilot the vehicle at his head.

Three Britons died in the incident – adventurer Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood

Mr Rush and Frenchman Paul-Henri Nargeolet were also killed instantly when the craft was crushed by the pressure of the ocean.

OceanGate’s scientific director Steven Ross is expected to give evidence on Thursday, as is Renata Rojas, a mission specialist for the American company.

The firm suspended operations after the disaster and now has no full-time staff but is being represented by a lawyer during the US Coast Guard hearing.

Titan lost contact with its support ship on 18 June last year, prompting a search in the Atlantic that made global headlines.

However, the wreck was found four days later 300m from the Titanic’s bow. The sub had been making voyages to the site of the legendary shipwreck since 2021.

US

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs refused bail a second time as he faces sex trafficking charges

Published

24 hours ago

September 18, 2024

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Sean 'Diddy' Combs refused bail a second time as he faces sex trafficking charges

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been refused bail a second time as he faces several charges including sex trafficking, drug possession and firearms offences.

US district judge Andrew L Carter said the government had proved “by clear and convincing evidence that there is no condition or set of conditions” that will ensure the safety of the community and that the rapper and music mogul will not tamper with witnesses.

The 54-year-old pleaded not guilty after he was first arrested by officers at the Park Hyatt hotel in Manhattan, New York, on Monday.

He was originally denied bail and told he would be detained after pleading not guilty to three felony counts during an initial court appearance on Tuesday.

Lawyers representing Combs asked a judge on Wednesday to let him await his trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, as opposed to in jail in Brooklyn.

But prosecutors argued against the proposal, saying there was too great a risk that Combs could threaten or harm witnesses.

Combs’s lawyers offered a $50m (£37.8m) bail package in exchange for his release to home detention with GPS monitoring and strict limitations on who could visit him.

Arguing to keep him behind bars, prosecutor Emily Johnson told the judge that Combs had a long history of intimidating both accusers and witnesses to his alleged abuse.

Ms Johnson cited text messages from women who said Combs forced them into “Freak Offs” and then threatened to leak explicit videos of them engaging in sexual acts.

She also said that Combs’s own defence team was “minimising and horrifically understating” his propensity for violence.

The defence and prosecution were wrangling over the request before the judge passed his ruling.

“I am feeling confident. We’re going to go get Mr Combs out of jail,” Combs’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo said on his way into court on Wednesday, before the judge decided Combs would spend his time before the trial at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

A legal indictment released after Combs’s arrest detailed allegations dating to 2008, accusing him of abusing, threatening, and coercing women for years “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct”.

He allegedly induced female victims and male sex workers into drug-fuelled sexual performances, dubbed “Freak Offs”, according to the report.

Combs, formerly known as Puff Daddy and P Diddy, was once one of the most influential figures in hip-hop – famous as a producer and manager of the late Notorious BIG, as well as a rapper in his own right for hits including I’ll Be Missing You, Come With Me, and Bad Boy For Life.

However, in November, his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, filed a lawsuit accusing him of coercing her, and others, into unwanted sex in drug-fuelled settings.

The suit was settled in one day, but months later CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs punching and kicking Cassie and throwing her to the floor.

He apologised after the video aired, saying: “I was disgusted when I did it.”

US

Bumper US interest rate cut aims to boost flagging economy

Published

1 day ago

September 18, 2024

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Bumper US interest rate cut aims to boost flagging economy

US interest rates have been slashed for the first time in more than four years – by more than many expected – amid fears the world’s largest economy is flagging.

The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, brought interest rates down by 0.5 percentage points to 4.75% to 5%.

Unlike the UK, the US interest rate is a range to guide lenders rather than a single percentage.

Bringing down inflation to 2% is a primary goal of the Fed and it has used interest rates to draw money out of the economy by making borrowing more costly since 2022, when the Ukraine/Russia price shock hit.

Recent figures show the Fed is not far from its inflation target – with the main measure hitting 2.5% in August, the lowest rate in three years.

But signs of a weakening economy emerged last month as data on job creation led to recession fears.

The Fed signalled in its statement that while it was confident on both the inflation and growth outlooks, a slowdown in the pace of hiring was a cause for concern.

Only one member of its rate-setting committee dissented on the 0.5 percentage point reduction. Financial market participants had been split on whether it would go for the 0.25 option instead.

US stocks rallied in the wake of the decision, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and broader S&P 500 both up by more than 0.5% from flat positions moments before the rate decision was revealed.

The dollar was trading a cent lower versus sterling at $1.32.

Some market analysts said the Fed’s move showed Fed chair Jay Powell and his fellow policymakers had been too slow to react to the employment slowdown.

He told reporters: “We’re going to be making decisions meeting by meeting, based on the incoming data and the evolving outlook, the balance of risks… it’s a process of recalibrating our policy stance away from where we had it a year ago, when inflation was high and unemployment low, to a place that’s more appropriate given where we are now and where we expect to be.

“That process will time time”, he added, saying there would be no “rush”.

Michael Sheehan, fund manager of fixed income at EdenTree Investment Management, said: “Kicking off this cutting cycle with a 50 basis point reduction will undoubtedly vindicate those who had argued that the Fed had fallen behind the curve.

“Any doubts that this cutting cycle would be any less dramatic than previous ones have been firmly laid to rest.

“We expect this larger cut of 50 basis points to boost risk assets in the short term. The key for markets, and indeed the Federal Reserve, will be how far the softening of the labour market has to run.

“Powell will be hoping that taking aggressive action early will go some way to curtailing a substantial weakening and achieve the elusive soft landing.”

What about the UK?

It comes as the UK central bank the Bank of England meets on Thursday to make its own interest rate decision.

While the Bank will focus on UK economic data – and on Wednesday afternoon was expected by markets to hold rates – it could be influenced by US decision-making.

Lower interest rates tend to weaken currencies, so a big cut from the Fed could be good news for the pound.

While being able to buy more dollars is good news for people holidaying in the US and paying for imports like oil, it’s bad news for exporters who get less for their goods as a result and have a less competitive product.

Lower exports can slow inflation, meaning the Bank could be more likely to cut.