KARACHI, Nov 30: As many as 1,383 weary job seekers who were smuggled to a Gulf country by human traffickers, reached here on Tuesday by two cargo launches after being deported by the authorities.
The job seekers, most of them illiterate and hailing from Sindh, had been smuggled to Muscat after they were made to cross the Pakistan-Iran border illegally near Mand Ballu, Balochistan. They paid the human traffickers, from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000, for entering Dubai via Oman.
As they remained in prisons for several days before being deported, their physical and mental condition deteriorated. The job seekers, most of them barefoot, returned with no personal belongings or documents on them, except the emergency passports issued to them by the Pakistan mission in Oman.
They were brought by the Al-Mohammadi and Al-Fajr vessels which reached here after about a 30-hour voyage with an overloaded human cargo. The deportees claimed that over 10,000 Pakistanis are still in the Iranian border towns, waiting for their turn to be smuggled out to Muscat through launches.
As the deportees reached here, a strong contingent of immigration and passport circle was deployed at the immigration check-post at Ghas Bandar where the deportees were given food and water by the Ansar Barney Trust. The trust also extended financial assistance to them so that they could reach their homes.
A human smuggling racket is flourishing in Mand Ballu as local agents and their counterparts in a neighbouring country have been operating for the last several years and some local influential people are stated to be directly involved in this business.
Sohail Qadeer Siddiqui, welfare attaché at the Pakistani mission in Muscat, told Dawn that the problem of human smuggling can be checked by maintaining a strong vigil at Mand Ballu, he said.
The official said over 35,000 illegal job seekers have, so far, been deported from Muscat during the last four years. He also thanked the Omani government for bearing the expenses of deportation of illegal immigrants.
Sources said that from Mand Ballu, the deportees are taken into pick-ups to reach an Iranian border town after two days. After staying overnight, the job seekers are taken to another town.
Then they are taken to a jetty where they are herded into small launches and after a 10-hour voyage, they reach a coastal area near Muscat where they are abandoned by the human traffickers, and where they are finally apprehended by the authorities and sent to jails.
Sources said the ultimate destination of the job seekers is Dubai. Once they reach Muscat, they make attempts to enter Dubai near Al-Ain. A strong force has been deployed there to curb the penetration of illegal immigrants into Dubai, they said.
They said the law-enforcement authorities often resort to heavy firing to stop illegal job seekers from crossing the Dubai border. Three job seekers were killed recently in such an incident, the sources said.
A racket of human smuggling to Iran via Balochistan was unearthed in April by the FIA's Passport Circle which arrested 31 Bangladeshis and the driver of the bus they were travelling in near Hub. The FIA officials had also seized 27 fake Pakistani passports, hidden under the seat of the driver, and had also arrested one of the agents.
Exhausted by hunger and thirst, the deportees raised slogans of Pakistan Zindabad, as they started disembarking from the cargo launches at the Ghas Bandar around 9am. They were released one by one by the evening after the FIA checked their emergency passports.
The job seekers said they were crammed into a pickup, which took them to an Iranian border town, Kunarak, after a two-day journey. "We stayed overnight there and were taken to another town, Jashak, in another two days".
The job seekers, most of them hailing form Larkana, said they were handed over to other agents who took them to a jetty at Minab in their vehicles. "They herded us into a small launch which reached Khasab, Muscat, after a 10-hour voyage."
Imran Khan Umrani, a 22-year-old man from Shahdadkot, said that he reached Lea Market, Karachi, on Oct 15. "I boarded a bus and paid Rs600 for reaching Mand Ballu", he said.
The job seeker, who had acquired money on interest, said he stayed at Mand for six days and he paid Rs10,000 to an agent, Ali Dost Rind who was married to an Iranian woman. "We were 25 and we were made to board a pick-up which travelled in a mountainous area for a day. Then we reached near a mosque in an Iranian border town.
"Then we were taken in five luxury cabs to Chabahar, another Iranian town, where we stayed for five days", he said. The agent, he said, gave us food once in a day and they stayed in the open sky.
He said they boarded a launch which took them to Falaj in Oman. He said a helicopter hovered over them and the captain of the launch sailed to Barkah. Then they travelled to Sahar on foot where the police nabbed them.
Sanobar Khan, a 75-year-old Pathan from Swat said he had borrowed Rs12,000 for getting into Dubai. He came to Karachi two month ago and boarded a bus. He paid Rs12,000 to an agent.
"I along with my 20-year-old nephew Hakeem Zada and many others remained in an Iranian border town for over 18 days. "During this period, we travelled in vehicles and as well as on foot", he said.
