London: Two human trafficking scams involving Indians, especially from Punjab, unearthed in two far-flung countries - New Zealand and Britain - showed the massive scale of the illegal operations and the criminal network that faked documents and identities with impunity.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) exposed a sophisticated illegal immigrant network in London, while 39 Indian youth went "missing" in New Zealand during a religious tour.

Ripples of both incidents involving Indians are already being felt in the multi-million Indian travel and immigration industry.

In an undercover investigation, the BBC exposed a London-based criminal network that used fake passports, identity documents and human carriers to bring in illegal migrants into Britain. They were settled in around 40 safe houses in Southall, home to a large concentration of immigrants from India. Nearly all of the illegal migrants - called "faujis" in criminal parlance - are said to be from Punjab.

During the investigation, the BBC team met one of the agents, named Vicki, who was open about the fake documents he could obtain, and boasted about customers as far as Sheffield, Bradford and Coventry. Vicki said he could get people into the country on lorries, known as donkeys, organised by what he called his "man in Paris", and told how he could provide a fake "original" passport that had been "checked" to beat security at a British airport.

The BBC team met Indian employers who said they had no problem obtaining papers for the illegal workers, some of whom were willing to shell out huge sums of money for fake passports. There were Indian landlords renting out space to the "faujis". And, there was no shortage of work, though the workers are grossly underpaid.

Surinder Sodhi, vice-president of Travel Corp, a Delhi-international travel agency, said the scam would have its repercussions on the tourism industry.

"The travel segment is booming and these immigration scams could pose a threat to outbound tourism. Countries in Europe and New Zealand might become more stringent with issuing visas, and local immigration norms could be tightened for tourists," Sodhi told IANS.

"If a customer or traveller runs away on a tour, the entire process of packaging a holiday takes a beating, and then travel agents find it difficult to promote international destinations," he said.

In New Zealand, 39 Indians disappeared en route to attend the Catholic Church's week-long World Youth Day (WYD) festivities in Sydney. Three of the 39 "missing" Indians Thursday said that they had been cheated by their travel agents.

"We are victims ourselves and we are not trying to cheat the system," the three men, aged between 32 and 34, have told Joy Reid of the Radio New Zealand soon after meeting immigration officials along with two representatives of the Indian community in Auckland Thursday afternoon.