Are real-life ‘Dunki’ stories on the rise?
A charter plane with 276 Indian passengers, grounded in France for four days due to suspected human smuggling, returned to Mumbai on Tuesday. The incident underlines the risks of illegal migration, also highlighted in the film Dunki. Mint explains the nuances: The Punjabi word dunki, meaning to move, or hop from one place to another, has inspired the term “donkey route".
The term denotes illegal border crossings via indirect routes with many stops in different countries. The final destination of many illegal migrants is the US, but they typically exploit loopholes to make it happen. They may first go to countries that allow visa on arrival from India, or use trafficking agents who get them direct visas.
A popular route is to travel to Latin America or central American countries like Nicaragua first to evade tight scrutiny, and then traverse a dangerous route to the US, crossing rivers and forests. Undocumented immigrants usually choose to travel for various reasons. Some flee poverty; some flee violence.
Some might even be displaced by development measures such as the building of a large dam. Refugees are usually lured to the border by agents promising easy passage to the US or EU. These agents charge high fees for bogus documents and transport people via sea or flight.
However, many end up as pawns in the booming trafficking business. Human rights groups have documented instances where migrant workers’ access to their passports is manipulated to push them into bonded labour. Migrant smuggling is today a transnational crime and a booming business.
It is the business of unlawfully crossing borders but it is voluntary in nature. In contrast to smuggling, human trafficking is defined by its involuntary status. Traffickers
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