Plane Detained In France Shines Spotlight On Indian Illegal Immigrants To The US

A recent incident involving a chartered flight from the United Arab Emirates to Nicaragua has brought focused the spotlight on Indians trying to immigrate to the United States illegally.

The Legend Airlines A340 aircraft headed to Managua, Nicaragua, with 303 passengers on board from Fujairah airport in the United Arab Emirates, was held up four days in France's Vatry Airport last week following an anonymous tip-off on suspicions of human trafficking.

Indian nationals mostly from the western Gujarat state and working in the UAE formed the majority of those onboard the flight. They were flying to Nicaragua to migrate to the U.S. or Canada, BBC reported.

Nicaragua is among the 17 mostly authoritarian nations designed by the U.S. as failing to meet adequate standards to check human trafficking. The also list includes China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.

Flying in to Nicaragua and then traveling overland to the U.S. has been a preferred option for Cuban and Haitian migrants for some time. Last month, Washington imposed sanctions on the operators of the aircraft, putting a freeze on such illegal migration that has threatened to overwhelm border communities in the U.S.

But Indian nationals taking the same route has not been reported earlier although the number of Indians seeking to enter the U.S. illegally has increased steadily over the last few years.

The plane was sent back to Mumbai with 276 passengers, 25 sought asylum, and the remaining two were designated as assisted witnesses by France, reports said. It landed in the Indian city early Tuesday.

India's embassy in France thanked the French government and the Vatry airport on X for what it said was the "quick resolution" of the situation and for enabling the Indians to return home.

The United Nations defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception with the aim of exploiting them for profit.

There has been a five-fold surge in Indians trying to enter the U.S. illegally, with American authorities encountering 96,917 cases from November last year to September alone, India's junior minister for externa affairs V. Muraleedharan informed the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament.

For perspective, Indians caught by U.S. authorities while attempting to enter the country illegally in 2019-20 numbered just 19,883; the number rose to 30,662 next year; and to 63,927 in 2021-22, showing a clear rising trend.

In a grim reminder of dangers that await such migrants, four members of a family from Gujarat froze to death in blizzards at the U.S.-Canada border in January. Another four-member family from the same state died in April after boat they were in sank in the St. Lawrence river.

Mexicans top the list of those trying to illegally enter the U.S., and Indians, despite the recent surge, account for only a mere 3% of the total illegal immigrants.