The killing of 39 Indians in Iraq’s Mosul by Islamic State terrorists has yet again highlighted the craze Punjabis have for foreign lands and the passion to become non-resident Indians (NRIs) even if it means working in conflict zones or in the most dangerous places in the world.

As many as 27 of the 39 men killed in Iraq by ISIS were from various areas of Punjab and it’s no secret now that they used the services of illegal travel agents for securing jobs there through illegal migration.

Paying Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh, arranged at very high interest from private money lenders in most cases, to the travel agents, most of these Punjab men were working a labourers in Iraq for a monthly salary of about Rs 25,000.

And it’s not that they were not aware of the danger from ISIS in Iraq. Family members of these men told The Statesman that over phone, they used to talk about the lurking danger but never thought of coming back.

Manjit Kaur, 36, wife of Surjit Mainka, resident of village Churuwali in Jalandhar, told The Statesman over phone that her husband had told her that the atmosphere was tense in Iraq since the rise of ISIS at that time. “His employers didn’t give his passport back to let him come back and asked the staff to stay indoors to avoid any mishap. But then one day ISIS kidnapped all of them,” she said.

The father  of another victim, Parvinder Kumar,  Jeet Ram, a resident of Jagatpur village in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district, said his son was promised good work in Mosul.

The fact remains that despite all the danger they were facing, all the men from Punjab in Iraq were determined to stick to their jobs to live the dream of a foreign job like lakhs of Punjabis working and living abroad for a better life.

This is not the first time that Punjabis have risked their lives for foreign jobs. In January 2016, 24 men from the state drowned off the Panama coast when they were being sent to the US through a method unscrupulous travel agents call ‘donkey flights’.

The term ‘donkey flights’ is used when illegal immigrants are smuggled into one country via another, through illegal entry points. Under it, illegal immigrants are taken to a particular country on tourist visas and from there they reach their destination through different road, sea and air routes. The immigrants are also provided fake documents.

Such methods and subsequent tragic stories are common in Punjab but there is no stopping Punjabis going abroad for a better life despite all the prosperity the agrarian state enjoys due to its fertile land. From selling their prized land to putting their lives at risk, a large number of Punjabis try every method to get to a foreign land.

A project coordinator at the Centre for Research on Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) in Chandigarh, Professor Aswini Kumar Nanda, said migration to foreign countries has become a question of identity and status symbol for Punjabis. Prof Nanda, who has conducted a study on “Dynamics of International Out-Migration from Punjab”, said Punjab lives in a culture of migration.

“Earlier people were going abroad only from Doaba region, but now this culture has engulfed the entire state and people from all sections of society want to work abroad not just for a better life for themselves but also for their future generations. There has been a tradition of migration in Punjab and it’s continuing at an increased rate now as people are impressed with the economic growth NRIs have achieved as compared to those working in Punjab,” he told The Statesman.

Prof Nanda said barring highly skilled professionals like doctors, engineers, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled Punjabis don’t hesitate in migrating to conflict zones like Iraq as they believe working there would open the doors for them in some other country. Of the 133 villages included in his study, only one had families whose relatives were not living abroad.  “Competition is also less for going to such countries like Iraq and Punjabis find it easy to get jobs there at less expenditure as compared to European countries or the US,” Prof Nanda said. Some others say factors like crisis being faced by farmers and dearth of employment opportunities for educated youth in the state are driving Punjab youth abroad for comparatively better paying labour jobs.

Prof Nanda said the state government is well aware of the illegal practices employed by Punjabis and travel agents for entry to foreign countries but only pays lip service every time a big tragedy like the Iraq killings takes place. “NRIs are a big vote bank in Punjab and they have a huge influence on voters back home due to the money they send back home to their families. So the government lacks the will power to check illegal migration which is very common here,” he said.

It’s the illegal travel agents who cash in on this craze for foreign jobs. Recently, Punjab has seen a great increase in immigration frauds with 900 such cases having been registered against travel agents between January 2017 and March 2018. As many as 609 such cases are directly linked to fraud and cheating, according to Punjab Police. As per the official data, there are 1,181 registered travel agents in Punjab, but the number of illegal immigration agents is believed to run into thousands.