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The Rediff Special/ Ranvir Nayar

Paris teems with Indian illegals

Don't be shocked the next time you walk down the world's most famous avenue, Champs Elysees in Paris, and mistake it for Bombay's Linking Road.

For, all along the crowded road are hawkers selling an entire range of merchandise -- toys, cigarette lighters, souvenirs, and the Parisian equivalent of peanuts, chestnuts or marrons. Speaking fluent French and a host of other European languages, selling their wares to Parisians and the tourists alike. But there is something amiss -- they are all Indians.

And it is not just at Champs Elysees that you find them. You go anywhere, to any famous spot in Paris and you just can't miss them. Around the Eiffel Tower, just outside the big departmental stores at Opera, at the Montmartre.

Paris is teeming with them. And each day seems to bring more of them. And all of them are illegal migrants, whose flow into the European Union region seems to be turning into a flood. They seem to be arriving by the shiploads or at least planeloads. So concerned is the EU about this seemingly unstoppable flood that it has become a major issue between India and the EU.

With the visa regulations for the United States -- a migrant's dream -- tightening each year, the migrants are now looking for other pastures. Europe is second only to the US in enticing the migrating populations. And the Schengen visa, which allows entry into 10 EU countries, is the most favoured vehicle for entry into Europe. Once inside the EU borders and free from immigration controls, the illegal migrants then look for their ultimate destinations -- with Paris and Frankfurt emerging at the top of their list.

So alarmed are the EU authorities by this flood of migrants from the Indian subcontinent that it has become a major issue between the two sides. No government has accurate figures, but estimates say up to 20,000 illegal migrants from India are landing in the EU each month.

There are about 65,000 persons from India, who are officially resident in Paris and at least five times as much who have smuggled themselves in, most of them in the last two years. A farmer with a small holding but a big family to support, Sukhchain Singh was always trying to look for ways to make the ends meet.

His holding of under five acres in Kurukshetra, Haryana, was clearly not enough to sustain the family. He was literally desperate when he learnt of a way to escape the misery and a chance to build a new life for himself and his family. The solution -- migrate overseas. His benefactor -- one of the hundreds of agents involved in smuggling people into the Western countries.

By pledging his holdings and his entire savings, Singh managed to raise the Rs 400,000 that the agent had asked for. And in August last, Singh, accompanied by four others from his region and the agent crossed the customs and immigration at the Charle de Gaulle airport in Paris. And the moment they stepped outside the airport, the agent -- his task completed -- vanished, looking for new customers, presumably. Singh and his four companions joined the flood of illegal Indian migrants who have been thronging France for nearly a decade.

Less than three months later, Singh is not sure whether life in Paris is any better than in Kurukshetra. He sells roasted chestnuts outside the metro station at Republique in south central Paris. "I make between 100 and 200 francs each day. But my monthly expenses, even at the minimum possible, amount to over 2,000 francs, leaving me literally nothing to send home. And there is no quality of life. I have to share a small room with four others and have to look for saving each centime," Singh told rediff.com, while trying to catch the attention of his customers, fleeting out of the metro and rushing to their offices.

But Singh does not want to give up and return home. "My Rs 400,000 will not come back. And what will I do there? I might as well stick around here for some more time and make something of my life," he says with a look somewhere halfway between resigned and determined.

And Singh definitely does not have any reason to feel disheartened, going by the track record of his predecessors.

Ayaz Ahmed Abhi used to spend his time playing cricket, eating and sleeping in a small village in Bharuch district of Gujarat. Till he migrated. He first went to Johannesburg in South Africa, where he worked odd jobs for a few months. And from there, with a genuine 15-day French tourist visa, stuck on a fake South African passport, which he acquired for Rs 50,000, he landed in Paris. That was in November 1995.

He began selling toys imported from Italy or China on a pavement, just outside the prime shopping centre of Galeries Lafayette. Business proved to be good. "On an average day in December, I can make up to 1,000 francs. In other months, it is about 300 to 500 francs. And at the end of the very first year, I had managed to save nearly 45,000 francs. And that is besides my own expenses here and the money that I sent home," says Ayaz.

Keeping his expenses down is a crucial element. Ayaz lives in a small room of about 100 square feet in a residential hotel in a poorer area of Paris. He shares the room with three others -- all from Bharuch. The room costs him about 600 francs a month and the other costs like food and clothes come to about 1,000 francs.

Less than three years later, Ayaz has savings of nearly 200,000 francs (Rs 1.5 million). He plans to get married to an Algerian-French woman, who lives in the same building as he. Ayaz is happy about his move, though a bit philosophical. "I do miss the village and my family. But in the village, I would spend my time lolling about, playing cricket, eating and sleeping. There was no future there. At least, here I am building a future," says Ayaz.

An average migrant makes more money than the seven million unemployed French nationals, who have to subsist on about 4,000 francs a month.

But not everyone has moved to Paris, running away from abject poverty at home. Salman's life was almost perfect. A graduate from the Rizvi college in Bombay's posh suburb of Bandra, Salman was doing a part-time course in computers, while working for a real estate group in Bombay. His father ran a small shoe shop in Bandra, while the family of five lived in the adjacent locality of Mahim. Everything was rolling along smoothly.

And then came the infamous Bombay riots, following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992. By the time the frenzied mobs of Shiv Sainiks went off the Bombay streets, Salman's life was left upside down. He tried to rebuild his family business, but could not recover from the setback and that forced him to look for starting afresh, but outside India. Salman's cousin in South Africa asked him to come over. After a string of odd jobs in restaurants and stores in Johannesberg, Salman got a fake South African passport and landed in Paris.

Now he works along with nearly a score of other Indians who occupy the pavements opposite Lafayette. The migrants sell a range of items -- from cigarette lighters at 10 francs to dancing dolls at 50 francs. Most of the migrants belong to two communities -- Gujaratis and Punjabis. And the two seem to specialise in their own brand of trades -- Gujaratis prefer selling toys and Punjabis marrons.

Although getting past the immigration when they first land at the airports is the biggest problem for the illegals, that is not an end to their troubles. Selling goods on pavements, without permits from the local authorities, is illegal and the migrants have to keep an eye out for the cops.

"Sometimes, they just come and seize our goods and that is a big loss for us. Though they do not harass us or ask for any money, but it is a big loss,'' says Singh. But most migrants are all praise for the behaviour of the cops. "They are so polite. Often, they would turn a blind eye. There are cops who tell us to fold up when they arrive, saying we can recommence as soon as they leave. They never touch you, unlike in India where they will slap you before saying a word," says Mohammed Ilyas, a resident of Bharuch.

Most admit they cannot spend their lives in this uncertainty and hence try to obtain work permits that would allow them to look for legal jobs in restaurants or construction sites. However, with the French unemployment running at over 11 per cent (the second highest in Europe), work permits are almost impossible to obtain. Hence, they try other options.

Most head for Italy -- where much like India, money can get you anything. Ilyas is in the process of getting his Italian work permit by spending about 7,000 francs. Others are not as lucky and try other, more desperate methods. A large number of people from Ayaz's village stay in Toronto and had been asking him to come over. Three months ago, Ayaz obtained a fake British passport and tried to leave for Canada from eastern France.

However, his British passport failed him and he was caught. On disclosing his Indian nationality, Ayaz was taken by the cops to the Indian embassy in Paris.

While the embassy promised to verify Ayaz's version within a week, he was kept at a hostel of illegal migrants near the airport. "It was very comfortable. Three decent meals a day, television in the room, common games facilities, nice baths. It was really comfortable, but it was a bit like a prison since I could not leave the complex," he recounts.

When the Indian embassy failed to revert to the French authorities even 10 days after the incident, Ayaz was released back on the streets of Paris. This is one of the main points of difference between India and the European governments.

With most of the illegals hiding their passports or other identity documents, which are sometimes seized by the accompanying agents as soon the migrants clear the immigration section at the airport, the European administrators are hard put to prove the nationality of the illegal migrants. And India refuses to accept them back saying the Europeans tend to send everyone looking like an Indian to the Indian embassies, while they could be from anywhere -- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or even East Africa.

The problem for the French authorities is worsened by the fact that most migrants arrive in very small groups or even individually, making it hard to detect them at busy airports like the Charle de Gaulle, which handles a traffic of over 2,000 flights each day. The immigrants also choose specially busy periods to sneak in. For instance, during the football World Cup held in 1998 in France, nearly 100 persons from Bharuch and Ankleshwar got in, under the pretext of watching the games.

Another legal hurdle that helps the immigrants stay on is the rule that if a person can prove residence in France for five continuous years, he is automatically entitled to stay on and avail the social security benefits and other rights of a French national.

This is one reason why the migrants hide their passports -- with the date of entry clearly stamped -- and bring them out after the five-year period is over, to claim legal French residence. In addition, various governments from time to time announce amnesty schemes, allowing the migrants to be legally registered as residents in France.

Though Prime Minister Lionel Jospin had announced a similar amnesty last year, the European governments are under increasing pressure to keep the illegals out. But the governments can do little, besides mounting checks. And that is the reason why the European Commission will keep up the pressure on India to take back at least some of the migrants. But that should not deter future migrants from following the footsteps of their cousins or neighbours.

The Rediff Specials

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