Hardly a kilometre’s drive down the Malyankara bridge along the coastal highway is a turn to the left leading to an unpaved road.
About 500 metres along that road lined with houses on either side is a rectangular two-acre riverside plot, which has been in the headlines since last Sunday.
Apparently, it is from here that a group of illegal migrants crammed themselves into a tiny fishing craft and set sail for an unknown destination in search of a better life in the early hours of Saturday. A few abandoned bags with dry ration and other material revealed their story to the world.
It is a nondescript plot except perhaps for a couple of coconut trunks. There was the constant whir of a nearby ice plant. A little away, on the banks of the Paravur backwaters, a couple of traditional boats remained beached. The place was strewn with a tangle of abandoned ropes and cables.
Rows of boats berthed along the shore stretched beyond the field of view. A uniformed policeman was standing guard under the shade of a coconut tree, but he declined to be identified and only said everything related to the incident was in the realm of conjecture.
Lawrence, a 54-year-old employed in the ice plant, was more forthcoming. He had seen the abandoned bags while stepping out to switch off a light on Saturday around 5.30 a.m. but thought nothing of it.
“It is common for migrants to arrive at the plot to board boats during festival seasons such as Christmas and Easter. They sometimes leave the bags there to have tea from the main road,” he said.
Drivers of a few vehicles who had come to park there after dropping guests at an engagement in the neighbourhood, however, got curious and opened the bags to find food, water and dress materials inside.
“Then we thought that they were abandoned flood relief materials,” Mr. Lawrence said.
He realised there was more to it when television channels started breaking the story of ‘human trafficking’ later in the day.
