Vineeta Rao
Auckland, February 16, 2025
On the heels of undocumented migrants being deported from the USA, the Punjab State government announced the setting up of a WhatsApp Helpline Number (9056009884) to assist Non-Resident Punjabis in distress.
It aims to provide a quick and accessible channel for them to report issues and seek assistance.
Information lodged on this number will be routed to relevant departments for action.
It will also be sent to the NRI branch of Punjab Police, headed by the Additional Director General. NRI Affairs and Administrative Reforms Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said that his Department is facilitating the countersigning and attestation of various documents.
He said NRIs could also use this service to request documents such as birth, medical, driving, and education certificates and police clearance. Currently, these documents must be procured in person at the relevant local government department in India or accessed through the Indian High Commission at Wellington.
Crackdown on Dunki Agents
The governments of Punjab and Haryana announced that ongoing investigations into the vast network of ‘Dunki’ or illegal migration will continue. They have also announced the arrest of several travel agents who allegedly played a role in the illegal travel of some of the undocumented migrants recently repatriated to India by the US.
Of the 104 undocumented Indian migrants repatriated by the US government on 5 February this year, 30 adults and a 10-year-old child were from Punjab, while 33 were from Haryana.
Both states have seen a surge in immigration, both legal as well as fraudulent. Undocumented migrants take perilous routes, often dealing with cartels and triads, hop through multiple borders and pay large sums of money to unscrupulous agents and touts, with dreams of a better life as their end game.
However, the exploitation often does not stop even after arriving at their destination, given that the networks rely on organised crime connections to forge documents and fake passports.
Human Trafficking networks
According to Indian media sources, smuggling networks operate across more than 50 countries, with facilitators in India, Mexico, China, and Central America coordinating routes. Victims are lured through social media advertisements guaranteeing visas and residency.
Indian media reports that 65% of Indian migrants caught at US borders in 2023 admitted to using agents connected to transnational crime rings.
They said that agents created fake profiles and created fake content alleging persecution in India to claim asylum in the US and Europe.
The State Police Departments in Punjab and Haryana have cracked down on several immigration agents, based on complaints by the deportees, in a bid to demolish the transnational human trafficking network operating in the region.
Although illegal and undocumented migration has long been a problem in the region, it is believed that the State governments are taking pains to show concrete steps to mitigate or minimise the issue, given the scheduled meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump. The US remains India’s largest trading partner, and India is keen to ensure that the visa pathway remains clear for its legal migrants.
However, for many, these efforts are too little too late. The timing and the credibility of these measures are being questioned even as the WhatsApp Helpline was pressed into service last week. Indian Newslink reached out to several Punjabi and Sikh organisations in Auckland and discovered that none of them had been informed of the newly launched WhatsApp helpline.
The initiative appears to have been launched in a hurry, and no thought was given to building awareness within the relevant diaspora or community-based organisations working with them.
Vineeta Rao is an Indian Newslink Reporter based in Auckland.
