LONDON, Aug 20: Though immigration officials last week turned down an application for asylum from 23-year-old Pardeep Saini, who stowed away in the under-carriage of a British Airways plane last October, in an unusual move, the British Home Secretary has said he will review Pardeep's case. The Home Secretary has power of discretion in matters relating to immigration and asylum. And until a final decision is reached, Pardeep and his family members are not going to give anything away.Pardeep is one of two brothers from Navashahar in Punjab who attempted to seek asylum in Britain. Pardeep's brother, Vijay, died in the minus 60 degrees C temperature and his mangled body was found five days after Pardeep was found wandering in a daze at Heathrow airport The plea for asylum was made on the ground that Pardeep and Vijay fled persecution in India because of alleged links with Sikh separatists. Pardeep said that he and his brother had been arrested twice, and on the second occasion were beaten and detained for several hours. Asked if Pardeep remembered the police station he was taken to, his uncle and mentor in London, Tarsem Singh said that he did not remember, and ``in any case police don't tell you where they are taking you.''While there is a fair amount of skepticism about Pardeep's claim for asylum on political grounds, there is a general feeling that a man who has survived a death defying ordeal should be allowed to stay. Doctors are amazed that Pardeep survived and say that this is possibly because his body went into a state of suspended animation. His body temperature would have fallen to around 33 degrees C, lowering his metabolic rate to a level which would have killed most people. The lack of oxygen at over 35,000 ft. would also normally have led to brain damage. Tarsem Singh says that his nephew is suffering from depression and does not remember a lot. He says that he cannot remember the name of the agent who sold him his ticket to hell and back, and who, by the open verdict of the British coroner could be held responsible for his brother's death.Tarsem Singh also insists that it was Vijay who conducted the business with the agent. However, he seems to recall other things with clarity. The brothers left Punjab on October 5 for Delhi and stayed at a Gurdwara. In Delhi they visited ``scores of agents'' who specialise in smuggling people from India into countries in Europe. This can cost from anywhere between Rs 1 lakh of Rs 8 lakh. Pardeep said they eventually found an agent who did a deal with them for Rs 9000.Pardeep described in detail meeting the agent outside the airport's arrival hall. ``He told us how we could get into the baggage hold of an aeroplane. He took us to a quiet corner of the airport. We climbed over the fence and headed for the first plane we could see. We waited for the workers around the aeroplane to go, then Vijay went in and I went after him.''Pardeep is one of the lucky ones who attempt to enter western countries illegally in the hope of ``a better life''.However, there are others like his brother who fail to make it to their promised land. Earlier this year several hundred men from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh died off the coast of Greece, when the ship in which they were being transported sank. Each year there are reports of ``illegal immigrants'' dying in unventilated freight trucks, or of starvation or stress. Tighter visa regimes in the west are one cause for the desperate means employed by people to leave their countries. The Pardeep Saini case raises important questions about security at India's international airports. Pardeep and Vijay got on to the wheel of a plane at Delhi's Indira Gandhi Airport by scaling a perimeter fence, walking along the grass verge avoiding the spotlights that scan the tarmac. How on earth did they do this?
