July 24, 2006	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 27, 1427

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GUJRAT, July 23: The FIA Gujranwala circle claims to have identified seven agents and lodged 57 FIRs against them and 57 illegal immigrants who had recently been deported by Spain.

It is learnt that around 200 people, mostly residents of Gujrat, had paid money to the agents to send them to Spain. The agents charged Rs800,000 to Rs1 million from each person eager to go to Spain. They told the aspirants that they would be first taken to different countries of West Africa from where they would reach Spain by air on genuine visas.

They took the passports from their clients and obtained genuine visas from different embassies about a year ago. Around 200 clients were taken to Mozambique, Ghini and Kenya by air for their onward travel to Spain. In Africa, the agents misguided their clients and forced them to adopt sea travel on the pretext that the Spanish embassy had refused to give them visas.

Not only that, they boarded their clients in a ship bound for their destination. It is pertinent to mention that some human traffickers from Bangladesh and India and their 150 clients also were on board. There are conflicting claims that the agents either boarded their clients on forged documents or they hired a cargo ship.

After a long journey, the ship touched the waters of Spain near Madrid where the men on board sought the help of Red Cross. Soon the Spanish security forces and immigration authorities also reached there and took all the 350 illegal immigrants to a detention centre in Madrid.

The illegal immigrants remained detained there for around 40 days. In the meanwhile, the Spanish government informed the governments of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh about the situation. FIA deputy-director Naeem Akram Bhroka and inspector Ajmal Sindhu visited Madrid where they held negotiations with the Spanish immigration authorities for deportation of Pakistanis.

The Spain government agreed to deport 78 Pakistanis after negotiations with the FIA officials. It is learnt that some immigration officials from India and Bangladesh also visited Madrid but the outcome of their negotiations could not be confirmed. All the Indian and Bangladeshi illegal immigrants were still detained in Madrid, according to the latest information.

The Spanish authorities had deported 78 Pakistanis the other day. The deportees arrived at Islamabad airport where an FIA team from Gujranwala, led by assistant director Aqeel Ahmad Qureshi, received them. Fifty-seven deportees belong to Gujrat, eleven to Rawalpindi and the remaining belong to Karachi, Multan and Faisalabad.

The FIA team took the 57 deportees to its detention centre in Gujranwala where it quizzed them. Later, the FIA lodged 57 separate FIRs against the deportees and their agents.

Sources in the agency told Dawn that the FIA had identified seven traffickers; five of them belong to Gujrat and two to Gujjar Khan. They, however, did not give out their names. They said the agency had obtained physical remand of the deportees.

Meanwhile, the parents of some of the deportees from Dinga and Kharian told this correspondent that their sons were subject to severe torture by the FIA during their physical remand. They alleged that the investigators had been demanding bribe from the deportees.

When contacted, Inspector Riaz Janjua denied the charges of torture and demand of illegal gratification by the FIA men.

Deputy-director Bhroka could not be contacted as, officials said, he had still not returned from Spain.