Shattered dreams lead a man to the brinks of desperation. This is what happening to illegal Indian immigrants in UK. After the David Cameron government stepped up its vigil on such cases the only reluctant result seems to be deportation. The worse is in store as many of them do not even have their passports and are forced to live in dire straits in the so called slums of the country. Notably the figures speak out that many are planning to return with no friendly quarters to turn to in the distant lands. For those of them who have shattered their `London dreams’ the only forced to return to India.
The numbers seem to be on the rise since 2009 when the UK Border Agency (UKBA) had stepped up its activity in curbing illegal stay in UK. Statistics show that many are reluctant to get back home owing to the strenuous efforts to reach UK with a bigger picture in mind. Such people even destroy their passports to prevent being deported. But the policy makers take a different route to evacuate such people. Such people have to go through to establish their Indian identity and obtain emergency travel documents (ETD) from the Indian high commission here to return home. Another aspect identified by the authorities is that many of them though not from India plan to go there, but their bids are foiled by the Indian authorities. Of the 3,575 cases refereed by UKBA, only ETDs were issued for 1,737, after native police verifications by the Indian authorities, between 2009 and 2011. According to a high commission note, “there have also been instances where non-Indians were sought to be repatriated to India which was averted once the verification process established that they were not Indians.
During the same period even ETDs were issued to 2,673 individuals whose Indian identity was established on the basis of documents already available with them. UKBA had taken up vigorous action in this regards due to the crumbling economical conditions and most importantly such immigrants turned a pain to the society with their nefarious activities.
On one side popular Indians are buying large parts of real-estate as the sales are at touching lower points due to recession and businesses for flourishing in distant lands. The other side of the story is the lower middle class huddles in many prominent parts of UK in miserable conditions paints a different picture of the nation of billions, abroad. The shattered dreams of these aspiring youth was clearly highlighted in a film by versatile film-maker Savvyasachi Jain in his film Dhoor Kinare (distant shores) sending a warning to others “not to be mad” to try and come here.
Jain narrates his experience to prominent media source:
When I was making my film, I met many men who were destitute. They were living on the fringes of British society, homeless and sleeping rough. They weren’t making any progress here, and neither were they able to go back – to return home without having been successful would mean a huge loss of face, apart from the loss of the amount invested in travel. It’s a very desperate and stressful situation, and drug and alcohol abuse is common. These people are not criminals; they are enterprising young men who set out to make their fortune. But in this country they have no social capital, nobody to turn to. They don’t have the support networks that they would have in their villages back home. (With Inputs from Internet- Aarkay)
