October 19, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 6, 1428

LAHORE, Oct 18: Two Pakistani children who were taken into custody by the Turkish and Iranian authorities early this month for illegal border crossing had been reunited with their parents, which showed the agent mafia had now started trafficking children as well after charging handsomely from their parents.

Muhammad Zulifqar, 12, of Azad Kashmir and Waqar Hasan, 14, of Mandi Bahauddin, were caught at Turkish and Iranian borders, respectively, along with a group of adults.

Under an agreement signed between the Federal Investigation Agency and the Child Protection Welfare Bureau (Punjab), the former is bound to hand over the children being trafficked, either willingly or unwillingly, to the latter so that they could be reunited with their families without facing any court trial.

The ultimate destination of both the children was Greece where they expected to make quick bucks to support their families.

The children told the CPWB officials that neither they themselves nor their parents paid a single penny to the agents who had `facilitated’ their travel.

The claim was rejected by an FIA official who was of the view that the people involved in human smuggling were usually contacted by those aspiring to go abroad for a `better future’. And an agent even charged money from such aspirants for false promises, he added.

The Zulifqar and Waqar got trapped in traffickers’ web in almost similar ways; both were enticed by their friends who were five to eight years older than they were and both had to support their large families.

“Basically, a number of people from my native tehsil (Bhimbar) used to go abroad and made a fortune. I also wanted to follow suit but unfortunately could not make it. I was a step away from my destination,” said Zulifqar who was caught at the Turkish border.

He claimed that some ‘Kurds’ had caught him along with others and released them after charging Rs300,000 each from their families through a money transfer outlet. He said one Imdad was an agent who remained with the group till they reached Pakistani border.

However, Waqar did not reveal the name of the agent. He said he travelled in a group of five people to Karachi by train from where they went to Gwadar and reached Iranian border by road.

FIA Assistant Director (Gujranwala) Arif Bokhari told Dawn that the trend of trafficking teenagers was picking up, especially in Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin. He said during the last 10 months some 15 young boys had been deported from Iranian border who wanted to enter Greece illegally. He held the parents responsible for the plight of these boys saying had they not arranged money for the hazardous journey their children could have been saved from the ordeal they went through.

Mr Bokhari said the FIA’s Gujranwala cell had arrested 446 suspected human smugglers and of them 265 had been convicted by courts. He said to effectively curb the menace there was a need to create awareness among the people on the issue.

CPWB programme director Zubair Ahmed Shad told Dawn that owing to the collaborative efforts of the FIA, child trafficking to the Gulf States was declining. He said the bureau was making all out efforts to rehabilitate the affected children.