For 300 or so of Indians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans, it was supposed to be the end of weeks of miserable travel abroad the 1500-tonne liner Yiohan, culminating in the clandestine landing on the shores of mainland Europe, the gateway to prosperity for many before them. But on Christmas night their voyage ended in disaster in the lonian sea off Malta. The Yiohan was transferring the nearly 500 illegal emigrants in its holds to a launch, midway between Malta and Sicily, when suddenly all hell broke loose. The launch, which could hold 100 people, had over 300 men, who had literally been forced down from the Yiohan, when it went done in a sea of confusion.
Said Jaspal Singh, one of the survivor: "We cried out to the sailors to save them, but nobody listened."
"It was a nightmare I thought will never end," said Sumitter Singh, 23.
As many as 170 Indians died; 40 survived. Twenty-two survivors returned to India after having surrendered to the authorities in Greece and the other are listed missing.
The government and the investigating agencies were floundering to piece together the complex web of local agents, tour operators and their contacts here and abroad, believed to include airport officials and those of the emigration department.
The survivors intially were wary of speaking out. They were afraid of retaliation by the agents who were being pursued by the economic offences with of the Punjab Police.
It was no coincidence that all 22 were from Punjab, and more precisely, all except one from the Doaba region, the fertile land bordering the Beas and the Sutlej.
"The youth here are interested in going abroad," said Daljeet Singh, Inspected with the Economic Offences Wing of Jalandhar Police which is working on the case along with the CBI. Their land had been divided and held no attraction for them any more. Foreign shores had more to offer, going by the experiences of those who had made it to the UK and Canada in the sixties.
The outflow was helped till recently by the terrorism. Thousands used the excuse of human rights violation to sneak into countries like Germany or UK and plead for asylum when caught.
"Gurdwara committees and Sikh students federations in those countries took over their cases and looked after them till they invariably got resident status," pointed out Jalandhar city policy chief Dinkar Gupta.
He insists that the present craze among the youth to go abroad started in 1994, after the allegations of human rights violations failed to cut ice with the west. They mostly went as sailors, for seamen don't need visas. All it takes is a fax from the shipping company (which more often than not is fictitious, based in countries like Ukraine) requesting clearance for a certain number of people, and offering to take 'transit visa' for them on landing.
The youth were taken to Turkey, Syria and other places where visas were easy to get and put on board ships in small groups. These hips then transferred them to a smaller vessel at one of the many ports doting the Mediterranean. Sometimes the transfers were effected in mid-sea, as in the present instance, at night.
The youth were taken near countries like Greece and Italy and transferred at night to small wooden boats arranged by agents based in Europe. They were then dumped at deserted beaches and told to find their way.
Despite all the uncertainty and the miserable journey, thousands from across south Asia still attempt the route. Italy became the favourite destination after the UK and Germany tightened their laws.
Besides, Italy gave amnesty periodically. Last year after the announcement of such amnesty about 4,000 Indians in Italy and 5000 in Portugal declared that they had lost their passports. Investigations by the Indian embassy found that most of them had taken the 'illegal route'.

How the agents operate

The local agent approaches susceptible villagers, offering help. If the destination is a European country, he charges between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh; for the south-east Asian country it is around Rs 80,000. Between Rs 1 and 1.5 lakh is given to the agent before the trip and the rest after the person reaches the destination.

The sub-agent passes on the necessary details to his contact in the town who then sends it to the main agent based in Delhi or Mumbai. The main agent arranges the document s through his international contacts.

If going as 'sailor', clearance can be got once the fax letter requesting completion of emigration formalities comes from the shipping company (mostly fictitious).

The youths are then flown to a country were it is easy to board a ship without alerting the authorities-Thailand if the destination is south-east Asia and Cyprus, Syria or Turkey if the destination is Europe.

The ship picks up its human cargo from various spots so as not to alert the authorities. Midsea, the illegal migrants are transferred to smaller vessels arranged by contacts in those countries.

Vessels drop the migrants on shores under the cover of darkness. From here they have to find their own way.

Investigations into the Malta tragedy gained momentum only after External Affairs Minister I.K. Gujral while on a visit to Doaba was mobbed by relatives of the youths. initial information from Athens was that 79 were feared drowned.
The investigators made their first arrest on January 13: Sant Baba Charan Dass, who was running an illegal emigration racket apparently from his ashram called Deira Baba Badyana in Bidhipur village. Of the 14 he had sent on the ill-fated trip, 11 died. Sumitter Singh was one of the three survivors.
Since then more arrests have been made, including Avtar Singh, one of the links in the network based in Athens, and Satinder Kapoor, an agent in Jalandhar who is believed to have coordinated the operation with the agent in Delhi.
But even while police claimed to have identified the network of agents, as many as 50 persons dealing with the racket went underground. Among them were Vijay Kumar Pundit, the agent in Delhi, and Bahadur Singh, the agent of Alias Pavlos of Athens. Mandheer Kumar Wahi of Kapurthala, known as Bhola among the relatives of the dead, was believed to be in Nepal.
While Inspector Daljeet Singh said there were 13 agents besides touts connected with this particular voyage, police chief Gupta said they were looking at the whole racket in general. "The problem is that nobody is coming forward with complaints," he said, trying to deflect charges that the police closed its eyes to the racket. Relatives of the dead were matter of fact. "People all around us were going abroad using this network. They were even sending money to their families and there was no reason for us to be apprehensive," said Amarjit Singh, brother of Satpal Singh of Hoshiarpur who is missing.
"My cut for each person sent abroad was around Rs 20,000," he said but hastened to add that he only arranged the boys who were interested and took money from them. "All the other arrangements, including forging of documents was done by Pundit in Delhi." Singh was arrested by the Jalandhar Police.
IT IS not only Europe but also the south east Asian countries that are an increasingly favoured destination. "I paid Rs 80,000 to agents Devender Sharma and Brahm Datt to go to Malaysia," said Som Lal who took loan and even mortgaged his agricultural property to 'get rich' quick.
Som Lal said he was sent to Delhi and then flown to Bangkok in early December. From there, he was taken by road to a place he identified as Rajai. The group comprised about 70 illegal emigrants, about 20 Indians and the rest Bangladeshis.
"We were put on the boat at 4 p.m. and travelled for about 8 hours." Lal recounted. "But near the Malaysian coast, a patrol boat started firing at us. We cried out not to kill us, but they continued firing. By the time they arrested us, about 35 people, all of them Bangladeshis, were dead."
Lal claimed that the Malaysian security forces stripped them, took all their money, left them naked in the jail and even took video pictures. "They removed our turbans and cut off out hair and beard," he said.
After 12 days in jail, they were deported back to Thailand, from where they reached India via Sri Lanka, with the help of their agent in Bangkok.
Lal along with Arjun Singh, a resident of Hissar district of Haryana, filed a complaint with the Jalandhar Police. T.P. Singh Sandhu, SP (detective) with Jalandhar, confirmed this and said Som Lal's statements would be verified.
Meanwhile, the initially sceptical Greek authorities have finally come around to accepting that the tragedy in the Ionian sea did indeed take place. A persual of a detailed diary kept by one of the survivors was enough to make a prosecutor in Nafplion order an inquiry.
Although more than 110 people have been arrested worldwide, the main culprits including Youssef Al-Halal, the Lebanese captain of Yiohan is still missing. In India, CBI has spread its net for the agents and was investigating the alleged complicity of officials at airports and the emigration department.
THE RELATIVES of those who did not return have only memories to cling on to. "My father went via the agent to Europe some months ago. There has been no news of home since then,' says Balwinder hailing from Lakhpjor village in Kapurthala. 'Now who will look after me, my two younger sisters and my old mother?" she asks breaking into tears along with her mother.
Balwinder has been doing the rounds of the police stations and even meeting the survivors in the hope of getting news about her father. "Nut nobody is saying anything," she sobs.
Even as the Doaba region was coming to terms with the tragedy, another operation to smuggle out people-this time Sri Lankans- was exposed. The plan was to swap the boarding passes of three Sri Lankans, who had tickets to Colombo, with that of their friends, two from Canada and one from New Zealand. One of them had taken a one-way ticket to Toronto via Frankfurt and the other two had tickets to London. Though the swapping of the passes was done, a repeat check by the airline authorities foiled the new game plan.
The Canadians and the New Zealander were believed to be agents who took south Asians to the west. Entries in their passports showed that they had come to Delhi several times in the past-always for one or two days-obviously to help smuggle people across.
Doaba and rest of south Asia might have been jolted into realising that EI Dorado is moving away from their grasp, but they seem determined to find new avenues to reach it. The queue to go out of the country-legally or illegally-is a never ending one, as hope triumphs over fears of tragedies like the Yiohan.

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