January 7, 2006	Saturday	Zilhaj 6, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 6: As many as 513 worn-out jobseekers, who were smuggled to Muscat by human traffickers, reached here on Friday by a cargo launch after being deported by the Omani authorities.

The jobseekers, most of them hailing from the rural background had been smuggled to the Gulf state after they were made to cross the Pakistan-Iran border illegally near Mand Ballu, Balochistan.

They paid human traffickers different amounts, ranging between Rs5,000 and Rs25,000, for illegally entering Dubai via Oman.

Exhausted by thirst and hunger, the jobseekers, most of them barefoot, returned with no personal belongings except the passports issued to them by the Pakistani mission in Oman.

They were brought by Al-Fajr vessel which reached here after about a 30-hour voyage with an overloaded human cargo.

The deportees claim a large number of Pakistanis are still in the Iranian border towns waiting for their turn to be smuggled out to Muscat through launches.

A strong contingent of immigration and passport circle was deployed at Ghas Bandar where deportees were given food and water by a welfare trust.

The trust also extended financial assistance to some 35 jobseekers for their onward journey to their homes.

A human smuggling racket is flourishing in Mand Ballu as local agents and their counterparts in a neighbouring country are operating for the last several years and some influential people are allegedly involved in this business.

The jobseekers said they were crammed in pickups at Mand Ballu by agents and taken to an Iranian border town.

Later, they were taken to a jetty where they were herded into small launches, and after a 10-hour voyage, they reached a coastal area near Muscat.