12 November 2004	Friday	28 Ramazan 1425

KARACHI, Nov 11: Another 723 job seekers arrived here on Thursday by a cargo launch after being deported from Muscat. As many as 8,143 job seekers have so far been deported from the Gulf state during the current year. A batch of 602 deported job seekers had reached here Wednesday.

The job seekers, most of them hailing from upcountry, had been smuggled to Muscat through Taftan, a crossing on the Pakistan-Iran border, near Mand Ballu. They paid the human traffickers amounts ranging from Rs5,000 to Rs15,000.

The Ansar Burney Trust arranged drinking water, milk and food for the exhausted deportees, many of whom were sick. The trust also provided slippers for scores of deportees who were barefoot.

The deportees, who reached here by the Dubai-based Al-Harabe, had no personal belongings or luggage as they had been caught shortly after their arrival in the Gulf state. They were issued emergency passports by the Pakistani mission in Oman.

The racket of human smuggling to Muscat from Mand Ballu, Balochistan, has been operating for the past several years. Some local influential people are stated to have been directly patronising the illegal business.

An Iranian border town, Jaishak, is stated to be a safe heaven for the human traffickers. The deportees are taken to a nearby jetty and smuggled into the Gulf state by small launches.

The deportees said over 3,000 intending illegal emigrants were still waiting at the Iranian border town to sail to Muscat. They said around 500 Pakistanis, confined in Muscat jail, were awaiting deportation.