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Punjab’s 'Donkey Flights' to the world's conflict zones

Widespread joblessness explains why Punjab’s migrant workers resort to desperate means to reach their final destinations - some of the world's most deadliest places.

By Shuchi Kapuria, 360info
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Punjab's migrant workers

Punjab's men and women migrated out of the state when agriculture turned non-viable. | Courtesy: Design Hills

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Dunki in Punjabi means to hop, skip and jump from one place to another. It is also a corruption of the English ‘Donkey Flight’, a reference to inter-continental flights that carry Punjab's illegal immigrants to Europe and Central and South America.

A chartered flight operated by a Romanian carrier, Legend Airlines, carrying about 300 Indians, was intercepted in Paris last December on suspicion of carrying illegal immigrants to Nicaragua. The case brought to sharp relief the desperate means that Indians employ to emigrate to the US, UK and Canada but, more recently, even to conflict zones.

In February, the Indian media reported the death of two young men on the Ukraine-Russian war front. They were among 30 people from different Indian states who paid huge sums of money to agents to work as “helpers” for the Russian army.

Some of them were allegedly drafted into the Russian army and sent to the front to fight. Some, such as Arbab Hussain from Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh have not been heard of for weeks. Their relatives back home are worried, with the Indian government unable to provide much assistance.

In 2018, 39 Indian workers were killed in Iraq. Of these, 27 were from Punjab, while the others were from Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar.

Punjab's Unemployment Crisis

At the heart of Punjab's migration crisis is widespread unemployment

The scale and quality of employment in Punjab is also on the decline. The In

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