12 January 2004	Monday	19 Ziqa'ad 1424

PESHAWAR, Jan 11: Two alleged human traffickers confessed to sending about 160 persons, mostly Afghan nationals, from Pakistan to European countries on fake Pakistani and British passports, official sources told Dawn here on Saturday.

Mohammad Qadoos and Hameed Ullah, sales manager and accountant of Al-Khaleej Travels respectively, were arrested a few days ago from Dabgari Garden area and the FIA passport cell recovered four fake British, 29 Pakistani and two Afghan passports from their possession.

The owner of the travel agency, Mohammad Jehangir, was however still at large and has reportedly gone underground after the arrest of his two workers. More than 160 persons, mostly Afghan refugees, have been sent to Germany and Netherlands on these fake passports.

The accused told the FIA interrogation team that Jehangir had two Afghans agents - Shams and Mohammad Amin - who used to deal with Afghan clients wanting to go to Europe on bogus passports. The sources said that Shams was now living in London.

The accused further disclosed that another agent Shehzad used to purchase tickets from the famous international airlines on these bogus passports. However, the FIA officials said that the involvement of the airlines was yet to be investigated, as the information provided by Qadoos and Hameed could later prove to be wrong.

Jehangir used to charge between Rs900,000 to Rs 1 million for sending one Afghan refugee to Europe, while the rate for children was between Rs 400,000 to Rs 500,000, the accused disclosed.

Sources said that the human traffickers gang had not only close links with immigration officials in Pakistani airports, but also, the workers of some international airlines were also getting their own share in the illegal business. Without the connivance of officials in the international airlines, human trafficking was impossible as airlines also thoroughly check passports before issuing boarding cards to the passengers, the FIA sources said.

FIA officials disclosed that they had also arrested many Afghans who wanted to travel on genuine passports issued in some European countries. But these passports, when verified, did not appear to be present in official records in their respective countries, they maintained.

They informed that if the European countries invite the skilled labours of developing countries legally, they had to pay the wages according to the law and rules of their countries. But they wanted illegal migrants in their countries so that they may be paid low wages, they said.