On ‘way to Italy’ for kids’ future, Haryana barber landed in Libyan mafia’s clutches

CHANDIGARH: Rahul, a 30-year-old barber from Madhuban in Karnal, thought of going to Italy as he wanted to provide a decent life and good education to his three daughters, aged between three to eight, and build a pucca house for his family. Little did he know that the travel agent at Pehowa in Kurukshetra district would send him to donkers in Libya and a life of torture in captivity under an armed mafia.
Rahul was among the 17 persons from Punjab and Haryana who were rescued from a Libyan jail and landed in New Delhi on Sunday night.
Recalling his terrifying experience, an overwhelmed Rahul muttered, “It’s better to work for two square meals a day than falling prey to wrong persons for dollar dreams...”
His brother-in-law Balram rued that the family had arranged a loan of Rs 13 lakh through private financiers by selling jewellery to fund his ticket. “Our boy is back home, and we will consider that everything has been swept away by flash floods. However, we are pursuing the case and shall not spare the agent,” he said.
Of the 17 returnees, 8-10 were from Haryana, and 6 were sent abroad through the Pehowa travel agent, who is already behind bars. When contacted, Brij Mohan Tony, a relative of three other victims, said, “The last time we spoke to them was in June when they managed to call from somebody’s mobile phone.
We approached the local police as well as the embassy and then AAP MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney, who helped us.’’ Tony’s relatives were Sandeep, 38, a resident of Bhukhri; Dharamvir, 30, from Deher Ambli village of Naraingarh in Ambala; and Ajay, 22, from Handesra. Dharamvir said the agent had sent 18 boys in that batch and they were promised a work permit in Italy via Serbia. “They first took us to Dubai where we stayed for two days.
They convinced us that instead of going through Serbia, we should work for some days in Libya, and then head for Italy through Egypt. Then our torture began. They would force us to speak to our families to send money. We remember they forced a family to pay Rs 9 lakh to release their two boys,” he added.
All those trapped in Libya had paid Rs 13-15 lakh to donkers through agents. Most of them belonged to families of daily wagers or small farmers, who had sold land at throwaway rates or taken loans from relatives. When contacted, Haryana home minister Anil Vij claimed that some of the families had approached him as well as IG Ambala Range Sibash Kaviraj, who heads the special investigation team for immigration fraud cases. “I wrote four official letters to the MEA as well as the Government of India to help the families,” Vij said.
Haryana police have registered four cases of immigration fraud. Ramandeep Kaur, elder sister of Anmol Singh, a resident of Pehowa, said the travel agent promised that her brother would be sent to Italy from Serbia and had charged Rs 6 lakh. “We sold our house for my brother’s better future. The local agents in Libya would torture him and make WhatsApp calls to us to ask for money to release him. His passport was seized, and we ended up paying over Rs 12 lakh,” she said.
Kaur added that her brother had been hospitalised on his return. Similarly, Vikram, a resident of Lalru in Mohali district, said his brother Ajay, 25, who had completed Class XII and a course from ITI was promised a work permit in Italy. “We borrowed Rs 12 lakh to send him abroad, but the travel agent kept us in the dark about the detour to Libya. The travel agent was a party to the entire racket,” he said. Balwan, an uncle of Rahul Kumar from Pehowa, said, “The youth had flown from Amritsar on February 6 and reached Libya on February 9.
Their passports were seized, and they were sold from one party to another.” MP Sahney, who helped the men return, said, “They were kept in captivity by an armed mafia in Zuwara city of Libya. We received a panic call from these boys on May 28, 2023, informing us that they were being physically tortured and made to do unpaid labour for months. Video calls made to them showed they were in dire straits.” Sahney said the fact that India does not have any diplomatic mission in Libya made things difficult.
“Since these boys were in terror, we intervened by booking a hotel and arranging two taxis for them to run from the captivity and get rescued,” he said. But the hotel owner had the boys arrested after two days and they were sent to a jail in Tripoli. The MP said they then contacted the nearest Indian embassy in Tunisia and the United Nations, seeking their release from Libyan jail and repatriation to India.
After weeks of correspondence and requests, on July 30 the Indian embassy in Tunisia was able to get consular access through the UN and the boys were released from jail and sent to the Port of Illegal Immigrants in Tripoli, Libya. Finally, on August 19, they boarded a flight to Delhi,” he added. Sahney said he was now concentrating on the legal action to be taken against the unscrupulous agents who duped these boys.