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Trafficked en route to US, Punjab man recounts journey of torture, surviving five months in Amazon jungle

Held hostage by armed traffickers known as donkers in Colombia’s dense forests, he narrowly escaped death before being rescued with the intervention of Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Singh Seechewal.

In July 2024, Balwinder had left India, lured by the promise of a route to the US. (Representational Image)

After wandering for months through eight countries and the treacherous Amazon jungle, surviving five months on wood, grass, and sheer willpower, Balwinder Singh — a young man from Baz village in Punjab’s Kapurthala district — has returned home alive. Held hostage by armed traffickers known as donkers in Colombia’s dense forests, he narrowly escaped death before being rescued with the intervention of Rajya Sabha MP Balbir Singh Seechewal.

At Sultanpur Lodhi, where he arrived with his family to express gratitude, Balwinder shared the chilling details of his ordeal. “They tortured us like animals,” he said, recalling how fellow captives — many of them Indian — were slashed with blades, burned with molten plastic, and filmed while being brutalised. These videos were sent to families back home to demand ransom.

In July 2024, Balwinder had left India, lured by the promise of a route to the US. Travel agents routed him from Delhi to Mumbai, and then through the Netherlands, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and eventually into Colombia — where he was handed over to human traffickers. Upon arrival, his passport and phone were seized, and he was locked in a makeshift jungle prison along with dozens of other migrants, including some girls from Nepal.

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The traffickers, locally known as donkers, issued death threats. “One of them told me, ‘You’ll be shot in the morning,’” Balwinder recalled. That night, he made a desperate decision to flee. Miraculously, he managed to escape through the jungle and reached a road, where a biker helped him get to safety. But it was another five months before he could contact his family and tell them he was alive.

Back home, his mother, Shinder Kaur, and sister had been devastated. They had already sold their land and home to fund his journey and could not afford to bring him back. In desperation, they approached the office of Seechewal. “Though the MP was in Canada at the time, he immediately coordinated with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy to begin the process of bringing Balwinder home — and arranged for his flight ticket,” a teary-eyed Shinder said as she remembered the incident.

“It’s like my son has taken birth again. We had nothing left… and if not for Seechewal, we wouldn’t have seen him again.”

The Rajya Sabha MP said that Balwinder’s harrowing story serves as a stark reminder of the perils of illegal migration, adding that there is “growing need for awareness and accountability in tackling human trafficking networks”.