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How our blog Backpack ME became a hub for Human Trafficking

How Backpack ME became a hub for Human Trafficking

It’s no secret that Indians have a hard time obtaining visas for travel. We have an entire section on Backpack ME dedicated to visas for Indians. Readers often come to this section to find information on how to handle the paperwork so that they can travel to their dream destinations. However, it is through this seemingly innocuous section that we ended up turning into a hub for human trafficking!

I have an Indian passport. Most of the time, when I need to apply for a tourist visa, I have to submit a large number of documents explaining who I am. Documents like bank statements for the past six months, complete itineraries with hotel reservations and return flight tickets, income tax returns, an employers letter granting leave or vouching for the fact that I will have a job when I return from my holiday, and often, much more.

Then there are some countries that are thankfully visa exempt for Indians. Ecuador is one such country.

Arriving in Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Arriving in Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

 

We visited Ecuador in early 2012. A beautiful land with a large variety of places to visit and things to do. I wrote about my Ecuador visa experience in 2012 (see here) just as I write about all my other visa experiences.

However, there was something strange about this article. After a while, a lot of people started leaving comments on the article asking about how to get residence, even permanent residence, in Ecuador. Eventually, ‘immigration agents’ also started appearing in the comments section. They offered advice on how to move to Ecuador, how to get a job there, how much it would cost, etc. We didn’t think much of it until recently since the post was about visiting Ecuador as a tourist and clearly these comments were off topic.

In 2015, certain comments started appearing advising other commenters to beware of immigration agents. These comments were from people who had been hoodwinked by various agents posing as immigration experts!

It works like this: in our comments section, immigration ‘experts’ would make promises to people promising permanent residency, well paying jobs, a path to US citizenship, etc. in Ecuador! In turn, clients would pay over $5000 to the agents to help them process their papers. In addition to this, the client would also pay to be flown to Ecuador. The immigration ‘experts’ would say things like “Ecuador is the gateway to the US and Canada. Once you get a Permanent Residence permit in Ecuador you can go easily to work in the US or Canada.” (these statements are absolutely untrue)

 

After a few months, we started getting comments like this:

So basically Rao paid a lot of money to go to Ecuador but ended up with pretty much nothing. I decided to get to the bottom of this and emailed some of these people.

That’s when I got the real shock! Some of these people ended up in Ecuador because they had responded to comments left by agents on Backpack ME! Here I was, trying to help Indians travel the world and there were actual human beings ending up in Ecuador because of comments left on my very article!

 

My interactions with “Mr. T” showed a lot about how these agents operate. T is a young man from the state of Kerala, India. A few months ago, he heard something about opportunities in Ecuador and ended up on Backpack ME while researching his visa options. There, he found a comment left by an agent (let’s call him Mr. D, D for devil) advertising his expertise in immigration to Ecuador. He got in touch with the agent.

Mr. D asked T to arrange a total of around $6000 for his trip to Ecuador. T had to take a bank loan to arrange all this money. In return, Mr. D promised him a job that would earn good money in Ecuador and eventually he would be able to move to the US or Canada in about 6 months.

In addition, T had to pay for his own ticket to Ecuador. A few days later everything was ready and T arrived in New Delhi to take his flight to Quito. There were some issues with the paperwork so the airline did not let them board. They rescheduled the flight for a later date. After six days in New Delhi, they finally left for Quito. Once they reached Quito, they were crammed into a single room where four of them had to stay.

After a few days, when nothing was happening T asked Mr. D what the next step was. At this point of time the guy, Mr. D, got violent and started shouting at T and physically threatening him.

T decided to ask for his money back and after a lot of fighting decided to leave without his money. He is now in a foreign country, a strange land where he does not speak the language, and he has very little money left.

Now, T has spent a lot of money to get there and so cannot go back to his family without making at least what he has spent and hopefully a little bit more.

Thankfully, some local Ecuadoreans have helped him find a house and he is now taking Spanish language classes. He’s also managed to find a job at a restaurant.

T told me that the agents are charging a hefty premium for the little service and advice they provide. T says that the total amount for all visa extensions, PR applications, etc. comes to around $1000. The agents are quoting around $6000 and in fact charging any amount they feel that a client can pay. They then leave their clients out in the cold after their tall tales of jobs and fabulous lifestyles come crashing down.

T is a victim of human trafficking and Mr. D is guilty of making false promises to someone and leaving him vulnerable in a foreign land. But it doesn’t end there, T is trying to process his papers now and legalize his status but Mr. D is threatening to block his application by paying off some of his friends at the immigration bureau.

Furthermore, he tells of Indian and Pakistani agents smuggling people into the US via Ecuador.

Mr. D - the agent trying to make big bucks smuggling Indians into Ecuador

Mr. D – the agent trying to make big bucks smuggling Indians into Ecuador

 

While researching this story, I got in touch with Mr. D. I got his contact information from T. I posed as a person looking to immigrate to Ecuador. I told Mr. D that I had some experience working in hotels as a waiter and Mr. D told me that I could easily make above $1000 per month in Ecuador. Furthermore, he told me that I could go to the US and Canada to live and work once I had acquired permanent residence in Ecuador. Apparently, I could even apply for a green card! All of this, with a 90% chance of success! Mr D said he has been doing this for about a year and it’s all very successful. However, at this point he felt like I was asking too many questions and got nervous and started ignoring my messages.

Mr. D is not a good person. But unfortunately there are many like him. We have had to close comments on our Ecuador visa article lest more innocent people get taken advantage of. It’s really unfortunate but what can we do?

 

It’s pretty crazy how a simple visa information post can turn into a racket like this. Hopefully we can now do our bit to prevent this from happening in future.

Ecuador is a great country but perhaps not the best one to immigrate to if you’re looking for a comfortable well paying job. Please visit as a tourist and you will be delighted!

 

Featured photo by Ben Seidelman


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20 Comments

  • guys guys guyssss this is so sick! Can’t believe a Bastard is taking advantage of innocent people that just want better life conditions… And he used your post. Whattt? Great thing you figured this out just on time. I’m in shock.

    • Marta, that’s the whole reason Traffickers do what they do!! They find “desperate” people & use them to make them $$!! I do hope Backpack reported this, thus saving so many more people, than just Mr. T!!

  • I do hope you have done something to Stop this Trafficking through your Blog!! That’s Scary!! Praying you’ve been able to report those doing this in the process!! Hopefully you’ve been able to Save these people from this Evil plan!! Please keep me updated on this!! Delores

    • Ashray Says

      We’ve reported the agents that we know of to the relevant embassies and consulates. If there are any other agencies we can contact, do please let us know.

  • Archit Says

    It’s amazing isn’t it? I have traveled and lived in Canada and the UK for over 5 years and have been to the US as well. Everytime on departure the immigration agents in the Delhi airport are nothing short of humiliating, abusive and downright condescending. They can see my passport overflowing with immigration stamps and then they would say something along the lines of “it’s fake” or something similar.

    Where is the scrurtiny for these so called “travelers”? It seems like they’re hellbent on making the lives genuine travelers miserable and yet they let folks like these go to a place like Ecuador. India is such a mess.

  • Wow… just wow. Unbelieveable. I’m so sorry to hear about this. It’s so often the way, that people who are just going about their lives get taken advantage of – whether they be bloggers (like you and I), or, at the extreme end, the people who are mere pawns in this scam, like the “Mr T” you described. I hope there is some way to take steps to stop this from happening on the site… but as you say, what can you do, and how would you know?

    • Zara Says

      We’ve disabled the comments on the Ecuador Visa for Indians article. That way, no one will be able to contact each other to fall for this type of thing.. well, at least, not here on Backpack ME!

  • Hat’s off to you guys, for getting to the bottom of this and trying all you can to reports the wrong doers. It must have been heart wrenching to see something you wrote so more Indians could travel to be misused like this. We met some similar victims in Bolivia, thankfully they were young, smart and brave; they were on their way to get back on their feet. It is awesome as bloggers when something we write helps someone achieve what they are looking for. But something like this is a dark dangerous side to it. Thank you for sharing this, so the blogger community can be more careful.

  • Deepu Says

    Hi everybody I am in the Ecuador(Tumbaco)for last 1year i am in ecuador and I feel so happy to be here.Ecuador is good and developing country only problem in ecuador is language (spanish) if u learn Spanish its easy to get job and my qualification hotel management and I m working in hotel in Quito I have good salary around 800$ per month I am with my wife with this salary I am saving decent amount and cost of living in ecuador is very very cheap and my friend working in institution as a english teacher he get paid hourley 6$ my most of the friends got jobs in different of ecuador and all of them knows Spanish very well.if u learn Spanish its easy to get jobs.Ecuador is not bad country ecuador have lots of opportunities.

  • Hi! I am sorry to hear this! this is definitely a bad experience.

    I hope no one would fall for it again

  • What happened is outrageous! I’m sad to admit it doesn’t surprise me that there’s human trakkicking in the world we live in but I’m shocked that those despicable people operate with travel blogs as a racket.
    It’s so sad to hear that there’s people capable of using a post (a post which only had the intentions to help people with visa burocracy) for a horrible thing like trafficking.
    I’m glad you’re getting media coverage and I hope no one would fall for that fake comments again.
    Let’s all make a better world together. I’m sharing this.

  • This is such a crazy story!! Well done guys to expose these evil people…

  • Tania Says

    It’s so sad to hear that there are people in India who think that they can move to Ecuador to try to reach the USA and Canada! That is absolutely false! Ecuadorian citizens need visas to travel to the USA and Canada, so traveling to any of these countries from Ecuador means they need a visa.
    On the other hand, very few people speak English in Ecuador, so whoever plans to move to this South American country must speak fluent Spanish. Besides, the unemployment rate in Ecuador is high, so finding a job is rather difficult even for the Ecuadorian citizens and it doesn’t make sense for someone from a different country to move to Ecuador and expect to find a job easily. Jobs are scarce in Ecuador at this time, and Ecuador is not close to the USA or to Canada.
    I hope that the international authorities find the people committing human trafficking and send them to jail forever! Nobody deserves to be far from home, in debt and without the job that a dishonest person offered them!

  • Kishor Says

    This story is worth a movie. But sad.

  • Inder Brar Says

    Hi I m travling now Georgia country I wanna travel Ecuador and Bolivia . Is it possible without visa or I need visa . I dnt have us visa

  • Kaled Says

    Hi .This is kaled.
    I want to immigrated to Ecuador.
    I want to know the procedure and how much it cost . Plzzz give me information .
    Thanks regards

  • Gordy Says

    For someone that needs the information as an Indian tourist to visit Ecuador. These are the new rules to visit Ecuador on a tourist visa afer August 12, 2019. It is now 450USD just to fill in your paperwork for the visa. In addition to this you will have to pay to get your documents translated into spanish, notarized and apostilled. Good luck !!

    TEMPORARY VISITOR – TOURIST
    Requirements:

    Application form with passport picture
    1. Original and copy of valid passport, copy of the stamp of the last entry or visa
    2. Regular immigration status in the country where they request it
    3. Certificate of criminal record (FEDERAL AND STATE) of the country of origin or of the places where you have resided for the last 5 years notarized and apostilled
    4. Last Bank statement

    All documentation in a language other than Spanish should be duly translated into Spanish and, in turn, must have the respective signature of the translator’s signature before a public notary and Apostille
    All official documents from abroad must be have the apostille
    The requirements that do not appear in this section will be verified internally by the personnel of Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    Cost: USD 450. CASH OR MONEY ORDER

  • Srijit Basu Says

    Great.. Now thanks to the new rules, no Indian will visit Equador. It’s easier and probably cheaper to visit North Korea now.

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