Europe doesn't want to know who's washed up at its shores. They come as human cargo in the hulls of ships, wade through mined beaches and hide in woods before daring to surface.Some days ago, the epitome of the American Dream dropped by. Ujjal Dosanj visited his village Doaba in the heart of Punjab, from where his journey to Canada, prosperity, fame and the premiership of British Columbia began. But then, Doaba has several dreamers who want to make Dosanj's achievements their own.In 1996, one such group coughed up precious money and clambered onto a ship that ultimately sank. The Malta tragedy is now a milestone in the history of clandestine journeys made in rickety boats and planes by poor immigrants desparate to get to the promise that continents like Europe hold.But Fortress Europe doesn't want to know who's washed up at its shores. It does not want to accept that people are dying everyday trying to beat harsh immigration laws. They come as human cargo in the hulls of ships, wade through mined beaches and hide in woods before daring to surface. And sometimes, they die in shocking circumstances, as did at least 289 people four years ago on the night of Christmas in the icy Ionian Sea, between Sicily and Malta.Apart from 31 Pakistanis and around ten Sri Lankans, the bulk of the victims were Indians, from Punjab's Doaba region which comprises Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Nawan Shahar.36 degrees 45 minutes North, 14 degrees 30 minutes East lies the spot where the immigrants drowned. Captained by Youssef Al Halal, the 1,500 tonne Yiohan, with a Honduras flag, was carrying nearly 500 Asian immigrants as cargo. Their voyage to Sicily had cost them over 5,000 dollars each.In mid-sea, an ex-RAF search and rescue launch named F174 met up with Yiohan shortly after midnight. The human cargo was being transported onto the F174, and the boat with a capacity of 100 had nearly 300 on board when the Yiohan tipped over. The F714 floundered, the Yiohan quietly sailed away, and the world woke up the next day to a great human tragedy.It took the Italian government two years to take official cognisance of the tragedy and institute a probe. Al Halal is still absconding, as is Evtyhios Zervoudakis of the F714.But then, the victims were illegal entrants, without papers. In immigration terminology, they didn't exist. And, they were black.One group that has been diligently following the issue is the Malta Boat Tragedy Probe Mission (MBTPM), an NGO headed by Balwant Singh Khera.An MBTPM delegation had earlier toured Greece, Malta, Italy, Switzerland and other European countries to sensitise governments to take action against the guilty. However, the only success the delegation had was procuring a copy of the chargesheet issued by an Italian court against the 13 main accused.Another delegation returned from Pakistan last week after trying to persuade the Federal Minister for Labour and Overseas Affairs Omar Asghar Khan to expedite the probe.``We were able to meet some of the families of the 31-odd Pakistani immigrants who died and record their statements. The Pakistan government, after the pressure created by our visit, arrested Mohammed Yunus of Lahore, a main accused,'' said Khera. Yunus was the lynchpin of operations in Pakistan.It took a delegation's visit to Pakistan four years after the tragedy for Islamabad to effect the arrest of the main accused. And it could take many more years, and more tragedies, for a CBI case registered on January 17, 1997 to reach its logical end.The CBI's brief was to establish the modus operandi into the human smuggling racket. However, nobody has been arrested on the basis of the CBI's chargesheet.Even the consolation that this tragedy would deter illegal immigrants from embarking on such hazardous journeys is hollow. Malta or no Malta, travel agents continue to push human cargo into Europe with chilling regularity. Going by the proliferation of fly-by-night travel agents in Doaba and across Punjab, the Ionian tragedy is a forgotten chapter.The travel agents charge anything between Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs seven lakh. They operate through an intricate network. While the main agents are Delhi-based, their sub-agents are spread out in Punjab, mainly in Doaba (around Jalandhar) and Malwa. The sub-agents keep in touch with the would-be migrants who are then flown out of Delhi to a port of call.Till this point, the documents are valid. From there, they are smuggled into peripheral parts of Europe like Sicily or to the CIS countries and then left to fend for themselves.But those who squatted in the hull of the Yiohan are as determined as the Ujjal Dosanjs. If the tribe of illegal travel agents thrives as it's doing, Malta may soon be a distant memory.
