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Migrants Under Open Skies in
Brussels
Tejinder Singh
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Punjabi
and Sikh migrants do not bother risking their lives in search of
their El Dorado. Tejinder Singh interviews some for whom it
seems a dead one but who have still not given up hope. The
stark reality of economic migrants is as chilly as the European
weather this season. –Editor |
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 The
media frenzy generated in Belgium with major media outlets carrying
the story of a dawn raid on a Gurdwara obscured the real cause of
"human smuggling," behind the police action in Brussels.
In the October
19 raid, the police found in different houses nearly 200 people who
are in
Belgium illegally and living in inhuman conditions. In one house in
Brussels
24 people were packed into a room of 12 meters-squares, according to
information provided by government sources.
Culminating an
investigation of almost a year, the Belgian authorities had found
that a network of traffickers in humans have been operating in
Belgium
for the past year and a half. Hundreds of illegal immigrants from
India and Pakistan have allegedly been smuggled through
Belgium
into the UK. The investigation into the network started after a
couple of human traffickers operating from India were arrested.
Belgium
authorities in keeping with usual practice released all the detained
migrants except marked human smugglers, who were arrested after
raids last month by the Belgian federal police on 19 houses in
Brussels's Vilvoorde regions including one Gurdwara, near Tubize,
just outside Brussels.
After taking
their finger-prints and delivering a written order to leave the
country, the illegal immigrants, who were without any legal
documents, were released within eight to twelve hours of their
initial arrests. With the safe houses raided and agents behind bars,
the illegal immigrants were left to fend for themselves.
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Resham Singh, President of Gurdwara Guru Nanak Sahib, Vilvorde
said, "There should be cooperation and programmes to educate
people in Punjab about the futility to take these risks,"
adding, "May be European Union and the European governments can
cooperate with Punjab and Indian governments to take the message
to the masses there."
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Green Parks and
Open Skies
Catching up with
them in many green local parks on the benches under the open skies,
this correspondent interviewed dozens of them. Out came the stories
of tears, desperation and clinging to survive with still hope to
move onto greener pastures in
United Kingdom.
With his hands in his jeans pockets and wearing all the clothes that
he owns, Bittu from Indian northern state of Haryana says in
Haryanavi Hindi, "Now I regret leaving home. There was food and
shelter there and love of parents."
The open
environs of
Brussels parks
have equated all and the sad expressions in the eyes say it all, as
Sukha from neighbouring state of Punjab nods in agreement adding in
Punjabi, "These agents are to be blamed. They go and spread all
these stories of how the legalisation papers have opened and how
it's very easy to get legal once one lands in England." Contrary to
earlier press reports, some of the migrants have been arrested more
than once but released within a few hours after the usual procedure
of finger-printing and issuance of written orders to leave the
country.
Elusive Route to
UK
There are two
ways the migrants are trying to cross into the
UK.
First and more costly one is when the agents on main land Europe
talk to a few drivers who take the risk and take one or two boys
ready to pay up to 6000 Euro to cross the English Channel by hiding
them in specially designed cabins around the driver's cabin.
The other
cheaper method is run by Albanian and Kurdish gangs who scout the
highway rest places for trucks and are experts in opening the back
of trucks to put migrants in without the knowledge of the resting
drivers. These gangs charge anything between 1000 Euro to 2000 Euro
on arrival at destination and the illegal migrants talked of the
ruthlessness of smugglers in extracting money and professionalism in
operating the hide and seek game with the drivers.
After
the raids and arrests,
Brussels
assistant prosecutor Tim de Wolf had told journalists that two of
those arrested were "the brains behind the trafficking operations
... They controlled a whole series of little groups. We hope we have
broken up the core of the network."
Kaka from
Punjab
told this journalist, "The main kingpin called Pahlwan, was arrested
a week before the raids and he along with another person named Baja
are the master-minds of these operations." "Pahlwan came to
Belgium
more than a year ago and is still illegal but operated this
clandestine smuggling ring, successfully ferrying thousands across
to England," Kaka added in his Punjabi punctuated with English
words.
 Asia
to Europe
The migrants,
mostly from
Punjab, had been
brought to Belgium through Moscow, De Wolf said. "We found 24 people
crammed inside one windowless room, measuring around 12 sq m," he
said. Most of the migrants, I spoke to have come through the route
Delhi (India) - Moscow (Russia) - Kiev (Ukraine) - Slovakia - Italy
- Belgium. After arriving in Moscow on visas - about which they
hardly want to talk, the migrants were moved by trucks most of the
time in connivance of the drivers and agents, they disclosed. For
this purpose, the well-organised smuggling rings provide seaman's
book for around Indian Rs 60,000 (about 900 Euro) and the person
flies to a port city to join the ship as "crew."
Sometimes there
is no ship and the person is routed along the land routes. And if
there is a ship, it is usually the ones operating with not much of
sea-worthiness left in them and which transport illegal aliens to
somewhere along the thousands of kilometres of unmanned Greek and
Italian coastline. In all cases, the passports which have the
airport stamps of departure from
India
and arrival at some transit destination are destroyed by the human
smugglers as soon as the person finishes legal part of the journey.
No Documents, No
Nationality
The documents
are destroyed to make sure that the authorities cannot tie a person
down to the country of his origin and in that case the authorities
cannot immediately deport him. They need to establish his
nationality, which is a time-consuming process.
Indian embassy
in Brussels refused to comment on the fate of the migrants as
embassy official R K Goel (First Secretary, Education and Culture
with the responsibility to handle media) had told this journalist
over the phone, "The ministry (Indian Foreign ministry) is looking
into the matter so we cannot comment on the subject."
 Resham
Singh, President of Gurdwara Guru Nanak Sahib, Vilvorde said, "There
should be cooperation and programmes to educate people in Punjab
about the futility to take these risks," adding, "May be European
Union and the European governments can cooperate with Punjab and
Indian governments to take the message to the masses there."
Sunil Prasad,
President of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin
said, "One of the main reasons why economic migr ants from
India
want to migrate to UK is because UK is friendlier than many
countries in Europe with respect to giving asylum."
"Also, because
of a large Indian community in
UK, it is
natural that these immigrants want to come to UK and seek better
life," Prasad, who is also the Secretary General of the Brussels
Europe India Chamber of Commerce (EICC) added.
The dream lives
on as is evident when speaking to Sucha, who was one of the few
lucky ones to survive the clutches of law and order authorities. He
shares an unhygienic dwelling with seven more. His eyes sparkle when
questioned if he would make a dash to more promising lands. He
replies, "I am looking for a good opportunity to go to
England or may
be Canada."
(Names changed
to hide identities)
Tejinder Singh
is the editor of New Europe-the European Weekly and member of the
International Press Association. World Sikh News is pleased to
announce that Tejinder Singh’s reportage from Brussels will
regularly appear in the World Sikh News. He may be contacted at
otitos@gmail.com
19 November
2008
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