In September last year, Gurwinder Singh, a 44-year-old dairy farmer from Patiala, left home after paying Haryana-based agents Rs 45 lakh to go to the United States, according to an FIR registered by the Punjab Police.This was his third attempt – his first via Dubai and the second via Amsterdam (Netherlands) en route to Conakry (Guinea) had both failed, and he was sent back to India.After a four-month journey that involved a flight to Suriname in South America, a long boat ride to Guyana, traversing the jungles of Panama on foot for five days and hiding in a vegetable truck for hours until the Mexican border via Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, he finally entered the US on January 25, only to be deported back to India in February.Gurwinder is among the 131 deportees from Punjab who have been sent back home in batches from the US this month for having crossed into the country illegally. The deportations have opened Pandora’s box, with the Punjab Police now investigating how a network of agents across the globe helped these Indian deportees enter the US via the illegal “dunki” route.Read | Travel agent’s arrest in Delhi exposes ‘dunki routes’ used to traffic individuals to US, other countriesAn analysis of 19 FIRs registered by the police gives a glimpse of how the agents have attempted to send Indians to the US through diverse routes – from China, Guinea, Kenya, Egypt, Kenya, Czech Republic, Belarus, Bahamas, Nigeria, to Italy, the Netherlands, Malta, Suriname, Thailand, Dubai and Spain. A United States military C-17 aircraft carrying first batch of104 deported Indian nationals landed at Amritsar airport on February 5. (PTI photo)The names of at least 32 countries that the deportees traversed figure in these FIRs, with the 19 deportees having paid a total of Rs 7.89 crore to agents to take them to the US.According to the preliminary data collected by the Punjab government after speaking to the deportees who landed at Amritsar airport, it is estimated that the total money paid to these agents – including from the unregistered complaints — currently stands at Rs 44.70 crore.Story continues below this adWhat has further added to the complex investigation is that each case — based on the deportees’ statements — shows the involvement of the vast network of agents and their aides (informally called donkers) spread across multiple countries.Explained | Jumping fences, crossing jungles: How migrants use ‘dunki routes’ to reach USThirty-six agents, their aides and kin have been booked in these 19 FIRs. At least five agents are natives of Punjab but are currently based abroad in countries such as Spain, the UK, the US, Germany and Dubai. Other agents are mostly natives of Punjab and Haryana, including a farm union leader from Moga who also ran an immigration business.The FIRs show that for most deportees, their journey began from small villages and towns of Punjab and spanned at least three months to over a year, only to end in deportation after these people crossed the US-Mexico by scaling the wall.Read | Punjab man deported via Panama: ‘Wanted to return from Mexico… but donkers forced us to cross the border at gunpoint’While most deportees reached Brazil to travel further towards Mexico via the Darién Gap, some also travelled via another Central American country, El Salvador, to reach Mexico via flights.Story continues below this adBut for many deportees, the journey ahead involved a strenuous path via the Darien Gap — the only land route that connects South and North America – crossing rainforests, mountains and several rivers by rickety boats, on foot and further by taxis/buses before finally reaching the Mexican border. After reaching Brazil, they illegally crossed Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala before finally reaching Mexico to cross the US border.The FIRs also indicate a common modus operandi of the agents. According to the deportees, as the journey progressed via several countries, the agents collected money from their family members back home in tranches. In most cases, the agents would send their conduits to collect money and, in some cases, the “donkers” — aides of the agents — would demand more money than initially agreed on. The family back home was then told via WhatsApp calls that the journey wouldn’t progress till the amount was paid.Read | 4 from Punjab, among 12 Indians, deported from Panama reach Amritsar‘Promised flights, cruise ships but taken on rickety boats, had to walk miles’From a suspect in a snatching case to a dairy farmer, a truck driver and a restaurant employee, the FIRs reveal the motley group of people hopped from country to country, with each deportee spending Rs 40-45 lakh on an average by “selling ancestral land, mortgaging house and jewellery, selling buffaloes, taking loans etc”.Story continues below this adAmong them is 26-year-old Gurwinder Singh of Ludhiana, who was wanted in alleged snatching and robbery cases.Read | Amid Deportations From The US: Punjab Police raids 1274 immigration firms; registers 24 FIRs, arrests 7 travel agentsAccording to the FIR — registered against five agents, including one from Dubai based on his wife Hardeep Kaur’s statement to the police — Gurwinder started his journey in December 2023. He was sent back twice from Nairobi (Kenya) and Belarus and even spent three days in a Russian jail after being caught illegally crossing the Russia-Belarus border. He reached the US on this third attempt via Abu Dhabi but was deported earlier this month.Also among the deportees are 21-year-old Jaswinder Singh from Moga, who was promised a US visa but was instead sent to Prague (Czech Republic) and then Spain; Ramandeep Singh from Nawanshahr, who travelled via the Bahamas after paying Rs 40 lakh to his agents; and Patiala’s Aman, who paid USD 14,000 to a Pakistan-based agent, “doctor,” who took him to the border via taxi.In Gurdaspur, two travel agent brothers (one of whom is settled in the US) have been booked on the complaint of two cousins — Harjit Singh and Harjot Singh — who spent Rs 40 lakh each and went through Amsterdam.Story continues below this adMohali’s Taranveer Singh, who paid a Haryana-based agent Rs 45 lakh, was promised he would be taken by “cruise ships and flights”. “Instead, I was taken on rickety boats and had to walk on foot for miles,” he said in the FIR.Hoshiarpur’s Harwinder Singh, 41, told police that he paid Rs 42 lakh to agents. In the first failed attempt, he was sent to Thailand, then China and then back to Mumbai. In the second attempt, he reached Brazil and further crossed the Darien Gap to reach the border.Read | ‘Only wanted a better future for my son’: Punjab single mother deported from US waiting for agent to return her moneyGurdaspur’s Jaspal Singh, 36, a truck driver, has named two Punjabi agents settled in Spain and Germany who allegedly took Rs 30 lakh from him to send him to the US via England “legally” but did so via the dunki route.Daler Singh, 38, a farmer from Amritsar, paid Rs 60 lakh to agents who first sent him via Nigeria but could not arrange any flights ahead. He was again sent via Dubai. Similarly, Sangrur’s Davinder Singh was trafficked via Egypt after paying Rs 50 lakh.Story continues below this adNIA might be approached for assistance in transnational probe: ADGPThe Punjab Police, which set up a four-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe human trafficking allegations following the US deportations, is “considering approaching the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the coming days for advanced assistance as the probe in these cases would expand across several countries”, ADGP (NRI affairs) PK Sinha, who heads the SIT, said.He claimed that from the statement of the deportees, “a well-oiled network of agents is facilitating this illegal transportation of people via the dunki route” and that the police were trying to convince as many deportees as possible to register FIRs, “but not all are coming forward”.“Three arrests have been made so far and 19 FIRs registered… With the help of technology and government agencies, SIT is trying to trace the money trail and the network of agents. We started the probe with local agents and will eventually expand to other countries,” he said, adding that the aim “was to target the big fish”.