ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: The government will make effective legislation and empower the police and Frontier Constabulary (FC) to control human-trafficking and smuggling on Pakistan border.

This was said by Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat while speaking at a seminar on human-trafficking and smuggling organized by the interior ministry in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at a local hotel on Thursday.

The seminar was attended by federal secretaries, diplomats, government officials, representatives of NGOs and others.

The minister said the government was determined to control the menace as it was earning a bad name for the country in the international world. However, he urged the international community to avoid linking minor immigration offences of Pakistanis with any sort of terrorism.

Mr Hayat said the interior ministry, in coordination with other ministries of law, justice and human rights, foreign affairs, labour, manpower and overseas Pakistanis and the women development division, drafted ‘Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking and Smuggling Ordinance, 2002’.

The president promulgated the ordinance to cover almost all aspects of human-trafficking and smuggling such as trafficking of women for the purposes of prostitution and children to serve as camel-jockeys.

“Severe punishments have been prescribed for culprits indulging in human-trafficking in the ordinance,” he added.

Speaking on this occasion, Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani said according to the US State Department, one million people were smuggled in a year in the world.

He said human-trafficking had emerged as a global issue during the second half of the 20th century. The government, he said, realizing the gravity of the problem, had initiated a number of steps to address the issue.

Mr Noorani said Pakistan which was placed in tier-3 by the US in its Annual Report on Human Trafficking, 2001, had immediately initiated measures to effectively check human trafficking so as to improve its image in the comity of nations.

“As a result of concerted efforts and remedial measures, both short-term and long-term, Pakistan has now been upgraded to tier-2,” he added.

The seminar recommended that the number of passport cells should be increased and victims of human-trafficking be given protection instead of treating them as a partner of a human trafficker.

Pakistan missions in foreign countries should have regular allocation of funds to provide relief to the victims of human- smuggling who were sent to jail by foreign governments. In this connection bilateral agreements should be made.

The seminar emphasized the need for encouraging legal migration so that the menace of illegal migration and offences of migration laws could be reduced.

It also suggested formulation of a national plan of action to eradicate root cause of human-trafficking.

Similarly, poverty alleviation programmes should be launched to root out poverty which was one of the causes of illegal migration.

The seminar recommended promulgation of new laws and more powers to Frontier Constabulary and police to tackle the issue.