BATHINDA – More than 9,000 Punjabis, who entered the US illegally, are awaiting asylum or refugee status for the past five years.
This has been brought out in a query under the Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act (FOIA/PA). North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) Executive Director Satnam Singh Chahal had sought the information from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Of the 3,36,155 applications filed by illegal immigrants for acquiring the refugee /asylum status between 2012 and 2016, 9,397 were Indians. And of them, 95 per cent were Punjabis.
Only 476 Indians (mostly Punjabis) were granted the refugee or asylum status between 2012 and 2016 out of 50,618 persons from across the world.
Every year, more than 10,000 Punjabis try their luck to settle abroad. Each one of them pays between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 30 lakh per person to travel agents.
Earlier, travel agents were confined mainly to the Doaba region and a few parts of the Malwa region (Moga, Jagraon, Ludhiana and Khanna) Now, they have started spreading their operations to rural areas of southern districts such as Bathinda, Sangrur, Mansa, Ferozepur, Faridkot, Muktsar and Fazilka.
The business of illegal human trafficking has acquired a whopping annual turnover of around Rs 12,000 crore. “Several people, who have managed to sneak into the US over the past three decades, have not applied for the refugee status. They cannot raise their voice for the protection of their rights or for getting the minimum wages. They have to work in fields or stores of their relatives covertly. Most of the times, they are paid $7 to $10 per hour against the minimum wages fixed at $15,” Tarlochan Sohal, Sheriff of Merced County in California, told The Tribune.
Satnam Singh Chahal has written to Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for the strict implementation of the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act, 2010 (amended in 2012 and 2016).
