Read the first part of this series on Indian workers on Italian farms here.Jalandhar (India) and Latina (Italy): When Serbia stopped visa free travel for Indians from January 1, 2023, it inadvertently placed a barrier on one of the routes many Indians take to illegally to enter western Europe.Till December last year, Indians could travel to Serbia without a visa and stay there for up to 30 days. In that period, ‘donkers’ or human traffickers would organise a ‘donkey route’ sea journey from Serbia to Italy for the Indians.Serbia has Austria, Slovenia and Croatia on one side and Macedonia and Greece on the other side. Thus, from here, it is easy to enter European Union (EU) or Schengen countries.To get to Italy in particular, migrants from Punjab either board a direct flight from Delhi to Serbia or from Delhi to Dubai and then Dubai to Serbia, and land in Belgrade. Next, travel agents or middlemen take them to Hungary and from Hungary to Austria. Austria shares its borders with Italy, Switzerland and Germany. This is what the travel agents call a ‘plausible’ donkey route.At Kikinda, just on the border of Serbia, two large camps cater to illegal migrants who have failed to cross into western Europe and who remain there while they consider their next steps. In December 2021, when Paramjit Sandhu from Amritsar arrived at one of these camps, he found himself among some 2,000 illegal immigrants from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and South Africa. He described the conditions at the camp as “horrible” and “inhuman”.Sandhu had been on a failed donkey route from Serbia to Romania with around 35 other youths, mostly from Punjab and Haryana in India and Bangladesh. His group had been led by a Pakistani travel agent called Cheema.“When we reached Kikinda, Serbia, we saw around 1,500 to 2,000 men in two large tents placed on open ground,” Sandhu said. “The camp had a large number of Bangladeshi nationals, but there were also some Punjabi men. When we talked, we learned that even those Punjabi men had reached the camp through Cheema.”The Pakistani agents who operated the donkey routes seldom communicated directly with the groups they led. When they did speak to the group via WhatsApp calls, the calls always came from different numbers.“Usually there is one main agent, like Cheema, and then there are others who work for him. These people are paid once the groups cross the border,” Sandhu said.Sandhu’s donkey route from Serbia to Romania was finished almost as soon as it started. Before the group could cross the border, they were caught by the Serbian Border Police. “We found some abandoned houses in the fields and stayed there for about five or six days,” said Sandhu. “This turned out to be a nightmare because of rain and snowfall. Since we had nothing with which to keep ourselves warm, we had to light a bonfire by burning the doors of the house. We had no food and water either. One of the Pakistani boys, who knew the area well, would step out every day to buy five litres of drinking water. We survived those days on black gram, karneti and khaboos, a kind of bread, and some biscuits. It was tough.”Crossing from Serbia to Romania is fairly easy because there are no check posts or fences to climb. But by now the inhabitants of villages on the Serbian borders know when illegal migrants are on the roads and when they spot them, they immediately inform the border police.“Basically, the fair-skinned Serbian nationals know that when ‘black men’ are there, their aim is to cross the border,” said Sandhu. “They don’t even interact with people like us. They just inform the police that illegal migrants are roaming in their villages.”Being caught by the Serbian police does not mean jail for the migrants. “They usually set the migrants free after fining each one 5/10 euro,” Sandhu said. “But before that they make them sit for eight to nine hours either under the sun or in snowfall. Sometimes the police also confiscate their mobile phones and other stuff.”Sandhu and his group were arrested by the Serbian police at about 3.30-4 am. “They made us sit in snowfall for nearly two hours. This led to deep cuts in my hands, as I had no gloves to wear. My hands and feet were numb because of the extreme exposure to snow,” he said.Jalandhar’s famous Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Nihal Singh Ji, Talhan Sahib, where people come from far and wide offering toy aeroplanes or replicas of aeroplanes with the wish of getting visa and flying abroad. Photo: Stefania PrandiMost of the people at the camps in Kikinda either try to enter western Europe again via an alternative donkey route, or remain in the camps and work as travel agents or middle men. Few of them, if any, go back home. Sandhu and his group remained in the camp for three or days and then set off once again on a another donkey route.“A Pakistani agent came and they changed one of our two donkers. They took us to a different crossing point by car at night and we successfully crossed the border,” Sandhu said.The group began their journey at about midnight and by 5 am, they were Romania. “Throughout the journey, the Pakistani donker told us to walk fast. Even after crossing into Romania, we remained quiet for a long time for fear of police action. It took us 10 to 15 minutes to cross the border and then we walked for another 30 minutes,” said Sandhu. “At 5.30 am, the donker told us to lie inside a dry canal for 30 minutes. It was very cold. The grass inside the canal was full of snow. Our socks were drenched and for over a week, our feet remained cold and numb. We were told that a taxi would come for us and we would move again.”Back home in Punjab, Sandhu had paid Rs 11 lakh for the first donkey. He had flown from Amritsar to Dubai, then from Dubai to Serbia. From Serbia, he had gone to Romania and from Romania he finally arrived in Aprilia, Italy.“When I first reached Serbia on the night of December 3 or 4, 2021, I stayed at a hotel in Belgrade. Then a Serbia-based Pakistani travel agents told us to meet him at a place about two kilometers from the hotel and that is when it started.”The man in Punjab to whom Sandhu had given the Rs 11 lakh was not a travel agent, but a friend. “He guided me about the donkey route. He was based in France at that time while another Dubai-based friend arranged my ticket to Serbia.”This friend of Sandhu went on to get to the US via a donkey route through the infamous Panama jungle. For this, he spent Rs 35 lakh.Emigration aspirationsThe fact that the Serbia route is not as easy as it once was makes little difference to either the traffickers or the illegal emigrants from India. Indians illegally enter western Europe via a variety of routes: Romania, Russia, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Ukraine, etc. In 2005, Balkar Singh had entered Italy from Russia. His journey from India to Italy had taken two months and entailed crossing 20 countries.In other words, there is no way to stop people from emigrating illegally if that is what they really want to do. And in Punjab, emigration has been the aspiration of people for more than a century.In Talhan, Jalandhar, the famous Gurdwara Shaheedan Baba Nihal Singh Ji is proof of how strong that urge can be. This particular gurdwara is perceived by thousands of people as one that will grant the wish to emigrate, so worshippers routinely bring toy aeroplanes or replicas of aeroplane with them and ask for them to be blessed.“I have heard a lot about this gurdwara, so I am here to offer a toy aeroplane too,” said Jasbir Singh, a young man who hopes to move to Canada.”I am sure my wish will be fulfilled.”Jalandhar’s famous Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Nihal Singh Ji, Talhan Sahib, where people come from far and wide offering toy aeroplanes or replicas of aeroplanes with the wish of getting visas and moving abroad. Photo: Stefania PrandiShops at the entrance of the gurdwara sell toy aeroplanes, all of which bear the names of international airlines, for between Rs 150 and Rs 500 depending on the size. The gurdwara receives so many toy aeroplanes every day that its management generously distributes them free of cost to children in the neighbourhood!In the past, many worshippers also took their passports to the gurdwara for blessings before sending them to an embassy for a visa. But when some passports were damaged or fell into the cash box kept in front of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the gurdwara management banned the practice.While the general trend in Punjab is to emigrate to Canada on a study visa, work permit or after getting permanent residency, a large number of men aged between 20 and 40 years are interested in moving to Europe to earn a decent living.In the choice of destination, there is a clear class divide as well as a rural-urban divide. The educated class aim to move to Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand because they are able to clear the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) which is mandatory for most English-speaking countries. The less educated, more rural people aim for Italy, Portugal and Spain, to name a few places, as these countries offer a wide array of jobs in their large scale fruits and vegetable farms.Nearly the entire road leading to the gurdwara right from National Highway-1 in Jalandhar has hawkers selling toy aeroplanes. Photo: Stefania PrandiThe urge to emigrate is, of course, primarily motivated by the prospect of making better money and therefore living better.“Look at Punjabi singer/rapper Sidhu Moosewala as an example,” said Professor Virinder Singh Kalra of the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK. “He had nothing going for him in India. Then he moved to Brampton, Canada, and became a multi-millionaire. So everybody thinks they will make easy money, quick money, abroad. Though they also know that this is just a dream, it seems to motivate them.”There is also the fact that despite the racism, discrimination and exploitation they face when they work abroad, Indians of the labour class are usually treated better in the West than they are in their own country.This became obvious to all the world during the lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when millions of labourers in India walked hundreds and thousands of kilometres back to their villages, because the cities that needed their labour did not feel the need to take care of them.“When it comes to the way labourers are treated in India and abroad, the two can’t even be compared,” said Udham Singh who worked in a kiwi farm in Italy for 13 years. “In India, a labourer is first defined by his or her caste, then ethnic identity and at times religion too. However, in foreign countries, the employers respect your work. In the end, all that a person wants is to earn a decent living and that’s where the difference lies.”The daughter of kiwi worker Udham Singh at her plush house in Malerkotla district in Punjab. Udham Singh’s family is leading a comfortable life back home with agricultural land and quality education for the children. Two of Udham Singh’s children are settled in Canada. Photo: Stefania PrandiThere is also a sense of adventure among the Punjabis, particularly those from the Doaba and Majha regions comprising Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Nawanshahr, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran and other towns and villages, which they have had since the early 1900s when thousands of Punjabi workers joined the colonial British army to fight in World War I. That, at least, is the story told among families today.Finally, adds Prof. Virinder Singh Kalra, the Union government’s Hindutva ideology makes all minorities nervous. “I think that’s a very big part of the need for migration these days,” he says.”There is definitely a belief that if you are a minority living in India now, it is not good.”The better lifeUltimately though, money remains the biggest motivator for emigration in Punjab’s villages, where big houses owned by those working abroad are popularly known by the name of the countries in which their owners work: Italy waleya di kothi (the house of the people who are in Italy) or ‘England wale’ (those in England).The idea, always, is to ensure that the children are given better lives and better opportunities for the future. But the people left behind while the men of the family move elsewhere often suffer.In Italy, while Balbir Singh was virtually incarcerated by his employer before he finally managed a fight for his freedom, his wife in Garhshankar town of Hoshiarpur district suffered failing health as she raised her three teenage children all alone.“None among my in-laws supported me while Balbir suffered in Italy,” she said.”It was a period of perseverance. But even in Balbir’s absence, my children studied well and are now settled in life.”Balbir’s son is settled in New Zealand and working in automobile sector. His older daughter studied law and was preparing for the competitive exams for the judicial services at the time of the family’s interview with The Wire, while his second daughter did a B.Sc in nursing and planned to move to Canada on a study visa.“My children are my biggest asset,” Balbir said.”They have brought me laurels.”At his native village in Nawanshahr district, Balkar Singh enjoys good social status as ‘Balkar Singh from Italy’. His wife, Harpeet Kaur, however, broke down while speaking to The Wire. “It has been really difficult looking after my two sons and my elderly in-laws and fulfilling all the family responsibilities,” she said.”Running the show all alone has been emotionally depressing at times.”Harpreet’s major concern was preventing her teenage sons from keeping bad company. “Everybody knows Punjab is grappling with the curse of drug menace. Children are falling prey to drugs and homes and lives are being affected,” she said.”It is disheartening to see a young boy die because of a drug overdose. Whenever my sons went out with their friends, I was anxious. It was difficult to be at peace till they returned home.”Kiwi worker Balkar Singh’s wife Harpreet working in the kitchen. Photo: Stefania PrandiDespite these issues, most of the families of emigrants live in comfort. At Udham Singh’s plush bungalow situated in the middle of their village in Amargarh, Malerkotka district, Manjeet Kaur and Simarjot Kaur, Udham’s wife and daughter, are enjoying the fruits of his labour in Italy. “When my father left for Italy in 2009, our economic condition was not that good,” said Simarjot Kaur. “Our current economic stage is quite different and far better than that time.”At first, Udham sent home Rs 50,000 every two or three months from his wages in Italy. Now, he sends home anything between Rs 1 to Rs 2 lakhs.“Whatever we are today in terms of our plush house, agricultural land, education and the fact that two of my siblings are in Canada on study visas is all because of my father’s hard-earned money in Italy,” Simarjot said.Cost of affordabilityLooking at how well many families of emigrants live motivates others to emigrate too. But most aspiring emigrants have little idea of what they will go through to get to Italy, even though stories of men being duped, robbed of their passports and identity documents, cash, belongings and even clothes abound.This is because those who have been defrauded do not want the police involved since that would mean long drawn-out legal processes. Those who take donkey routes also tend to play down the hardships of their journeys so their families will not worry. People are aware that some emigrants have even lost their lives on the donkey routes, but the motivation to emigrate remains powerful.“Why people take the risk is pretty simple,” says Prof. Kalra. “It’s because of a lack of opportunities in Punjab and generally in North India. Even when the donkey route is so precarious, they know that once they get past the donkey route, there’s work for them in the kiwi farms.”According to data released by the Centre for Monitoring of Indian Economy Private Limited (CMIE) this February, the unemployment rate in Punjab was 8.2%, higher than that of the average unemployment rate in India, which was 7.5%.At the same time, while there is a legal way for an Indian labourer to get a work visa for Italy, the process is long and complex and depends on quotas set annually by the Flussi Decree – an Act by which the Italian government, each year, establishes the maximum number of non-European Union foreign nationals who may enter Italy to perform subordinate, self-employed and seasonal work.For an Indian to get a work visa via the Flussi Decree, he must first contact an Italian employer who will submit an application to the authorities along with a proposed work contract while the worker is still in India. This can only be submitted online and on the one day set by the authorities for applications, which means the few thousand available worker positions are filled within seconds. So chances of being granted a work visa are extremely low.If the application goes through, the work visa must be processed by two different Italian agencies, which can take a year or even more. Only after the two agencies forward the clearance to the embassy concerned does the worker get the visa.However, even this route to Italy is not straightforward. The system of the Flussi Decree is regularly misused. On the one hand, those who want to obtain a work visa usually have to pay their employer for it. On the other hand, the Flussi quota is mostly used to renew the expired visas of foreign workers who are already in Italy.This kind of red tape is partly responsible for human trafficking, said Prof. Kalra. “Human trafficking exists because of border restrictions,” he says. “I don’t think you can look at just one system on its own. As border restrictions increase, so does trafficking in parallel. The real problem is that people don’t have work. Human trafficking responds to the desire to make a living.”Prof. Kalra also sees much hypocrisy in the European narrative of illegal immigration. “The people who complain about this nexus still want cheap kiwis,” he pointed out.”Workers are not allowed into these countries legally, so they get workers illegally. We need to look at both sides. The people who demand cheap labour are the people responsible for human trafficking. The people who want to eat cheap kiwis are responsible for human trafficking. We all are responsible for human trafficking, not just the criminal gangs running the nexus.”This investigation has been conducted jointly by The Wire, Danwatch and IRPI Media with the support of the Journalismfund Europe.
