Closing avenues

Although the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) satisfied with its performance which has kept Pakistan off the US list of countries failing to fight human trafficking for the last two years, the governments of Greece, Turkey, Iran and Oman still want Islamabad to ‘do more’ to control human smuggling into their countries.

In spite of the FIA’s avowed focus on overland human smuggling, a large number of Pakistanis still manage to enter these countries every year. These countries are worried over the situation and have asked Pakistan to ‘do the needful’ to address the problem. But since the FIA is utilizing its energies more on investigating terrorism incidents  and measures to check the rising trend, it seems human trafficking has taken a back seat on its priority list.

According to the FIA Punjab, around 2,700 Pakistanis were deported---mostly from Turkey and Iran in 2010, while several thousands are reportedly languishing in prisons abroad and at home. Among the deportees are teenagers as well, proving that the local agent mafia does not hesitate to lure even minors. In such cases, the FIA holds the parents responsible, saying that unless they (parents/guardians) do not wish to send their children abroad for a ‘bright future’ the children cannot arrange the amount on their own to pay the agents for this purpose.

The FIA Punjab Additional Director Main Raiz Ahmed tells that owing to a successful operation against agents and sub-agents in Gujranwala division, where a huge number of youngsters attempt to reach greener pastures by paying thousands of rupees to agents human smuggling has been substantially controlled.

He says that during 2010, the FIA Punjab had arrested 1,371 agents and sub-agents involved in human smuggling.”We have also nabbed 19’most wanted’ human smugglers involved in a number of cases registered against them by the FIA,” he says, adding that arresting such a big number of most wanted smugglers means breaking the ‘backbone’ of the network. Besides these people, he says that the agency had also arrested 624 proclaimed offenders last year.

Ahmed further reveals that last year over 2,000 cases were registered against the agent mafia and over 3,000 inquiries were finalized in this regard. “Our conviction rate has also improved as a total of 1,565 agents were convicted in 2010,” he concludes.

Last year, the FIA Lahore also off-loaded some 100 passengers trying to leave the country on forged documents. “Human trafficking by air has come to an end because of the strict measures adopted by the agency,’ says the FIA spokesman.