No one knows this better than Mr Ahmed.

Many Indians, particularly from Punjab, travel to developed countries in search of job opportunities and a better life.Some fall victim to scams run by travel agents, who charge exorbitant fees and send them through illegal or unsafe routes, often without proper documentation.

Gurdeep Kaur recounted the events that led to her 23-year-old son Amritpal Singh going missing to BBC Punjabi.The family had hired a travel agent in Hoshiarpur - where they live - to secure an Australian work permit for her son."Last month, the agent informed us that my son's visa had been approved and asked for 1.8m rupees as payment," she said.

"They told us they had booked a flight from Delhi to Australia on 26 April. But when my son went there, they told him that his documents were still not ready."The agent then told Amritpal that they had rebooked him on a flight for 29 April, but later claimed that even that ticket got cancelled.

On 1 May, the agent put Amritpal, along with the two other men, on a flight to Iran, describing it as a stopover en route to Australia, Ms Kaur said.

After landing, Amritpal called his mum to say that he had arrived safely and that a cab was on its way to take them to a hotel, before their next flight.That doesn't mean the Kremlin has headed off the danger of additional restrictions completely. The US Senate has threatened tough new sanctions against Russia if Moscow doesn't get serious about diplomacy.

Up to this point the Kremlin has been able to deflect or to sidestep whatever pressure it's come under to make compromises and concessions regarding its war on Ukraine.It seems confident it will continue to do so.

Russian forces are making gains in the Ukrainian north-eastern region of Sumy - a development that may be linked to Moscow's attempts to create "buffer zones" along the border, Ukrainian regional authorities have said.The head of the Sumy region Oleh Hryhorov said Russian forces have seized four villages and that fighting is continuing near other settlements in the area "with the aim of setting up a so-called 'buffer zone'".