Around 148 of the 276 Indian passengers whose flight was grounded in France over suspected human trafficking belong to the state of Punjab, with the remaining being natives of Gujarat and Nepal, official sources said on Wednesday.

A ‘dunki’ flight carrying 303 passengers, mostly Indians, which was grounded in France for four days over suspected human trafficking, landed in Mumbai Tuesday morning. A ‘donkey’ or ‘dunki’ flight is an illegal route undertaken by Indians to immigrate to countries such as the US, the UK, and Canada.

The list of passengers, of which The Statesman possesses a copy, most of them –148 of them — have Punjabi surnames. The remaining 128 passengers are either from Gujarat or the neighbouring country of Nepal.

The aircraft, an Airbus A340, took off from Vatry airport, which is 207 km from the French capital, Paris, at around 2.30 pm local time. It landed in Mumbai shortly after 4 am. Most of the passengers are youngsters – in their early 20s and 30s.

Sources say, apart from the passengers, there were also 15 members of the crew. Some of the 276 passengers were questioned by immigration officials but none of them were detained and were allowed to depart from the airport by 11.30 am.

According to the authorities in France, the chartered plane which originally ferried 303 passengers including two minors when it left Mumbai, out of these, 276 passengers were made to board the flight back to Mumbai, as 25 passengers, including two minors, expressed their desire to apply for asylum.

Back in Punjab, the Punjab Police is yet to receive any official information regarding the names of the passengers from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Interestingly, the information gathered so far reveals that most of the people deported had gone to Dubai on tourist or work permits within the past two months, a standard procedure followed by all those looking to immigrate legally or illegally. After all, past work permit history abroad and tourist visas are believed to be a stamp of authentication to the passport of the person concerned in the eyes of immigration officials.

Sources say an immigration agent from Jalandhar is under the radar for facilitating the travel of several of these youths from Punjab. The final destination of these youth was the United States through Nicaragua and Mexico. This route is the most common one for illegal immigration to the US. Moving from Nicaragua to Mexico is easy. And from there, people sneak into the US. Many consultants even charge Rs 40-50 lakh per person promising a safe entry into the US.

In the year 2023, about 97,000 Indians attempted to enter the US illegally. This is about 49,000 more compared to the year 2022, according to data made available by the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).