‘Third dunki flight’: Indians trying to enter US illegally via Dubai were mostly Class 8 to 12 pass

Chandigarh, January 4

A Nicaragua-bound aircraft, an Airbus A340, carrying 260 Indian passengers, was grounded in France for four days over suspected human trafficking. It was sent back to Mumbai in the early hours of December 26.

Investigations by CID into illegal emigrations to the US using chartered flights have revealed that another plane had taken off for Nicaragua from Dubai on December 6 as well, taking the number of such known trips to three so far, reports TOI.

Over 60 people from Gujarat on board the Nicaragua-bound aircraft had agreed to pay Rs 60 lakh to Rs 80 lakh to immigration agents, who promised to cross into the US illegally after reaching the Latin American country.

Police said 66 Gujarat natives, including some minors, were mainly from Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Anand districts.

Police have 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.

The state CID has so far acquired the names and contact numbers of nearly 15 agents, who had promised to help these 55 people enter the US illegally through the US-Mexico border.

It added that the CID had written a letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to help it collect more information about the agents who had acquired Dubai visa of these 55 passengers, bank details of agents who had paid the visa fee from his account, how the agents managed to acquire visa of Nicaragua from Dubai and who booked the flight from Dubai and paid money for the tickets of passengers.

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.

French authorities launched a judicial investigation into the conditions and purpose of the trip, with a unit specialising in organised crime investigating suspected human trafficking.

Nicaragua has become a popular destination for those seeking asylum in the US. As many as 96,917 Indians attempted to enter the US illegally in the financial year 2023, signalling a 51.61 per cent jump from the previous year, according to data made available by the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

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