New Delhi: As many as 1.49 lakh Indians were detained while trying to unlawfully enter the US between February 2019 and March 2023, according to the US Customs and Border Protection data.
The Times of India cited Indian agencies and Gujarat police as saying that Indians make up merely 2% of the people detained for trying to enter the US illegally, but hardly a few were deported.
In January 2022, 5,459 Indians were caught entering the US illegally. Of them, 708 were detained on the US-Canada border.
These numbers rose by 36% in January 2023, as 7,421 Indians were detained entering the US illegally. Of them, 2,478 detentions were made on the US-Canada border.
Several cases of Indians dying while crossing the US border have been reported, but that hasn’t stopped some families from crossing the US border illegally.
In January last year, a family of four Indian nationals, including two children, from Gujarat’s Dingucha village were found frozen to death near the Canada-US border.
Since this incident, the Gujarat police have been cracking down on organised human traffickers who are operating in the state.
According to the Times of India, the three key human smugglers in this case are: Fenil Patel, Rajinder Pal Singh and Bitta Singh. However, Fenil, a resident of Surat, has fled to the US, the newspaper reported.
Also read: Dingucha: A Gujarat Village Where Death Is More Lucrative Than Life
Dingucha village, located 44 kilometre from Ahmedabad, has an official population of 3,284 people, per 2011 census. It consists of Thakurs and Patels who are majorly into farming and factory labour. To fetch better employment opportunities, most families here have at least one member working in the US or Canada, Vibes of India reported.
Earlier this month, another family of four people from Gujarat drowned at the US-Canada border. They were from the neighbouring Manekpura village in Mehsana district, Deccan Herald reported. A large number of people from this village have also settled in the US and Canada.