Reuters, New Delhi :
In a dark alleyway no wider than arms’ length, a single ladies’ shoe is all that remains on the boarded-up doorstep of Prabhu Dhandapani, his wife and their eight-year-old daughter.
Prabhu, 30, was one of around 50 residents of a refugee community in New Delhi who left the capital to attempt an 7,000-mile boat journey through some of the roughest waters in the world with the aim of landing illegally in New Zealand, relatives and police said.
He is now in custody in southern India, while his wife and daughter are missing, along with everyone else who boarded the fishing boat that police say left Munambam harbor in Kerala on Jan. 12 carrying more than 100 people. The most likely and shortest route, though the straits between Indonesia and Australia, passes through seas where storms and typhoons are common.
More than a dozen relatives of passengers on board the boat, that include pregnant women and young children, told Reuters they left to escape chronic unemployment in the Madangir area on the south side of New Delhi. “They had to leave to find jobs, to eat,” said Prabhu’s mother, Sugana. “They have been promised work in New Zealand.”
When asked if she knew where the country was, she shook her head.
It the first known attempt by migrants to reach New Zealand by boat from India, and their story is a reminder of the vast challenge the country faces to create jobs for the 1 million young people who enter its workforce every month.
Boats have been setting out from South and Southeast Asia for Australia for a number of years but Indians making the trip have been relatively rare, based on Australian government statistics that show the largest numbers detained there to be asylum seekers from Iran and Afghanistan.
Passengers from Delhi left the capital in stages in December and early January. They checked into guesthouses near Munambam, a busy fishing port. They appear to have boarded the boat willingly, said a senior police official in Delhi briefed on the investigation. Their local police station in the capital had not received any missing persons’ reports.
Precise numbers on the boat – and who organized it – are unknown. One officer from Kerala investigating the case said around 100 people were on board. A second said it could be more than 200, with the remaining passengers coming from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Police recovered more than 70 bags left behind by the migrants, said one of the officers, VG Ravindran.
“The bags are full of dry goods and clothes, suggesting they were preparing for a long journey,” MJ Sojan, the officer leading the investigation told Reuters. “The people and boat are missing somewhere in the sea.”
Some passengers, including Prabhu, did not board the boat, and police traced several back to Madangir after finding identification documents in the bags left behind. He was detained by Kerala police less than 10 minutes after arriving back in Delhi, his mother said, and taken back to the state for questioning.
In a dark alleyway no wider than arms’ length, a single ladies’ shoe is all that remains on the boarded-up doorstep of Prabhu Dhandapani, his wife and their eight-year-old daughter.
Prabhu, 30, was one of around 50 residents of a refugee community in New Delhi who left the capital to attempt an 7,000-mile boat journey through some of the roughest waters in the world with the aim of landing illegally in New Zealand, relatives and police said.
He is now in custody in southern India, while his wife and daughter are missing, along with everyone else who boarded the fishing boat that police say left Munambam harbor in Kerala on Jan. 12 carrying more than 100 people. The most likely and shortest route, though the straits between Indonesia and Australia, passes through seas where storms and typhoons are common.
More than a dozen relatives of passengers on board the boat, that include pregnant women and young children, told Reuters they left to escape chronic unemployment in the Madangir area on the south side of New Delhi. “They had to leave to find jobs, to eat,” said Prabhu’s mother, Sugana. “They have been promised work in New Zealand.”
When asked if she knew where the country was, she shook her head.
It the first known attempt by migrants to reach New Zealand by boat from India, and their story is a reminder of the vast challenge the country faces to create jobs for the 1 million young people who enter its workforce every month.
Boats have been setting out from South and Southeast Asia for Australia for a number of years but Indians making the trip have been relatively rare, based on Australian government statistics that show the largest numbers detained there to be asylum seekers from Iran and Afghanistan.
Passengers from Delhi left the capital in stages in December and early January. They checked into guesthouses near Munambam, a busy fishing port. They appear to have boarded the boat willingly, said a senior police official in Delhi briefed on the investigation. Their local police station in the capital had not received any missing persons’ reports.
Precise numbers on the boat – and who organized it – are unknown. One officer from Kerala investigating the case said around 100 people were on board. A second said it could be more than 200, with the remaining passengers coming from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Police recovered more than 70 bags left behind by the migrants, said one of the officers, VG Ravindran.
“The bags are full of dry goods and clothes, suggesting they were preparing for a long journey,” MJ Sojan, the officer leading the investigation told Reuters. “The people and boat are missing somewhere in the sea.”
Some passengers, including Prabhu, did not board the boat, and police traced several back to Madangir after finding identification documents in the bags left behind. He was detained by Kerala police less than 10 minutes after arriving back in Delhi, his mother said, and taken back to the state for questioning.
