Fake immigration stamp, illegal boat journey: How ‘Dunki network’ thrives

Ram told The Indian Express, “An agent took Rs 1.5 lakh from me… I had no educational background so he took advantage of this and put fake immigration stamps on my passport… I am stuck in this case now.”

Ram, now out on bail, is not the only one. Sandeep Kumar, 23, has a similar story to tell.

A daily-wage worker in his village in Gurdaspur, Punjab, Kumar was called to Thailand by an agent promising a job in Malaysia. From Thailand, he took a boat with several others to reach there.

Fed up with the poor salary and living conditions in Malaysia, he decided to come back after 21 days. However, at Thailand airport, he was caught by immigration authorities as he had no travel history to Malaysia. He was deported and handed over to Indian authorities. “The case is taking a mental toll on me…,” said Sandeep.

Ram and Sandeep are among 70 passengers who the Delhi Police has arrested this year for taking an illegal route, or “Dunki route”, to reach a foreign country.

“Dunki” or “donkey journey” refers to the long-winding, often dangerous routes that people across the world take to reach the places they want to immigrate to. These difficult journeys are undertaken due to a lack of requisite legal permits or financial resources.

Police have nabbed more than 100 fraudulent travel agents for allegedly sending passengers abroad from across the country, using various ways of cheating till June this year.

Different routes, a single goal

How does this network operate? According to an analysis by the IGI unit of Delhi Police, passengers are sent to countries having visa-on-arrival facilities before being shipped to their destination countries through illegal border crossings.

Officers said passengers with fake Schengen visas are sent to relatively accessible European countries like Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan. From there, they are routed through Central American or Caribbean countries such as Guatemala and Costa Rica to US.

Another common route includes going to Turkey on tourist visa or Kazakhstan on visa on arrival, and taking a “Dunki” route to Russia from there.

Heading to Malaysia from Bangkok barely takes a 15-minute bus drive or a 20-minute boat ride, like in Sandeep’s case.

In some instances, a passenger obtains a fake Schengen visa before heading to Mexico where they receive the visa on arrival. From here, they take the “Dunki” route, travelling several kilometres through the border points to reach the US, said a senior officer.

Police also busted cases of commuters travelling on another person’s passport, with similar facial features, arranged by the agents.

“These passports usually have a strong travel history and robust profile, enabling the passengers to navigate immigration process more effectively… agents usually arrange these passports after looking at the facial features of the passenger or in other cases, disguise the passenger to look like the person in the passport,” police said.

Officers said that passengers who have either been deported and blacklisted often resort to changing their identities to get new passports.

Besides, they obtain fake Seaman Service Books (SSB) and fake letters of appointments which act as passports and allow easier travel without visas to most countries.