Balle Balle to Spanish Tunes

Nearly 100 men from Giljian village — over 80 per cent of the male population here lives abroad — have gone as illegal immigrants to either Italy or Spain. Almost all of them are unskilled and do menial jobs on farms, in factories and at construction sites.

With the US, UK, Canada and Australia stepping up immigration checks, sneaking into these countries is almost impossible. But the hardy Punjabi won’t let that hamper his foreign dreams and now, is headed for Italy, Spain and Portugal.

“The governments of these three countries are not too tough on illegal immigrants and they don’t ask them to leave their countries unless they get involved in illegal activities or create law and order problems. The immigration process comes up in Spain every six months and if you have a passport, getting a permanent resident status is easy,” he said.

Doaba, which includes the districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawan Shehar and Kapurthala, has at least one member from each family who lives abroad. The rural landscape here is dotted with SUVs and palatial houses — mostly owned by NRIs.

Over the last couple of years, at least 150 youngsters from Miani Afgana village have left for either Italy or Spain.
Kulwant Singh, who is from the same village as Harpreet, has been in Italy since 2001. He said the number of Punjabis in Italy had gone up substantially. “You can see Punjabis everywhere now. In some areas, there are almost as many Punjabis as native residents. It’s fast becoming a ‘mini Punjab’,” he said.

Getting a permanent resident status can sometimes be tough as Sandeep Singh of Talwandi Sallan village found out. He had just reached Italy when he got to know that the Spanish government was starting its immigration process. He had to cross over to Spain – he was an illegal immigrant and that meant taking further risks. But a few months after he landed in Madrid, he got his permanent resident status.

Sandeep was lucky — at least he reached Italy. Several others like him had paid travel agents to take them to Italy, Spain or Portugal but had been stranded midway in Algeria or Morocco. The agents buy the immigrants air tickets from Delhi to Moscow. Once they get there, they are handed over to agents in Moscow (agents have a well-knit network) who then take them to Ukraine or Algeria on foot.

Kashmira Singh of Bains-Awan village in Hoshiarpur talked to the Indian Express over phone from Algeria. “Nearly 150 of us are stranded in the forests and hills of Algeria and Morocco. Each of us had paid between Rs 8-9 lakh to travel agents,” he said.

Intelligence agencies in the state say that last year, 5,000 illegal immigrants from Punjab had been deported from various countries. Over 80 per cent of them had paid their travel agents to go to either Italy or Spain.

The Lok Bhalai Party, a political outfit that claims to speak up for deported Punjabi youth, has reportedly brought back nearly 200 youth from Kuwait, Qatar, Morocco and Algeria over the last one year. Reports said nearly 3,500 youth were still stranded in the forests of Algeria, Morocco and Ukraine. All of them had paid their travel agents to take them to Italy, Spain or Greece.

Amarjit Singh of Khela village paid Rs 7 lakh to go to Spain but could not reach there even after spending a year in Algeria and Morooco. The LBP helped him come back to Punjab.
LBP leader Balwant Singh Ramoowalia said that in the last couple of months, they had got over 300 complaints against travel agents who had cheated people of over Rs 200 crore.