PESHAWAR, May 31: More than 35 people accused overseas employment promoters of sending Afghan refugees abroad on their passports through photo change, official sources told Dawn on Saturday.

Many people visited the regional office of the Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment (BIOE) daily with the complaint that they submitted their passports to the promoters, but the promoters neither sent them abroad nor returned their passports, the sources said.

On Saturday morning, at least 35 people called on Director-General Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, who came from Islamabad on a special visit to hear their complaints in person.

The sources said that all of them accused the promoters of getting their passports and sending Afghan refugees on them through the notorious practice of photo change.

The Director-General told this correspondent that recently the BIOE had suspended licenses of 14 promoters on charges of receiving the passports through their sub-agents from the people and sending Afghan refugees on these passports abroad.

He said that an inquiry had been initiated against them and till the allegation was proved the licenses of the promoters would not be cancelled.

The recruitment agencies whose licenses have been suspended were: M/s Bannu Overseas, M/s Travel Zone, M/s Afridi Enterprises, M/s Al-Asif Enterprises, M/s Fayyaz Enterprises, M/s Badhaber, M/s Al-Wasiv, M/s Rahat, M/s Khilji, M/s Abha, M/s Marghaz, M/s Hamid, M/s Hammood, M/s Al-Kaseem and M/s Chinar.

Many promoters claimed that the passports from these complainants were taken away by their sub-agents.