The grass always looks greener on the other side. The same goes for the stories we get to hear about the better life in the west. To have that dream we are ready to do anything.
Same was the case with Paramjeet Singh and 16 others who were going to Italy to find a job and start a new life. But, little did they know that the story has a darker side to it too. They never reached Italy. Sold in Dubai for bounded labour, the group was later trafficked to Libya and got captured by a militia group, as per Paramjeet.
The men, who are said to be from Punjab and Haryana mostly, were rescued after their families contacted the Indian embassy.
The trend of leaving the country for better prospects doesn’t show the whole picture and many people get trapped in this cycle. They have devised a term for illegal entry of Indians into foreign countries, prominently the US, it is called “donkey route”. Do they see us as donkeys? Slaves? Cheap labour? Only they could answer.
