August 25, 2008	Monday	Sha'aban 22, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Aug 24: The Senate Standing Committee on Interior directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday to submit within 10 days a report on the death of 13 Pakistani immigrants in Turkey last month.

The illegal immigrants in an overcrowded container on a truck died of suffocation and their bodies were dumped in a field in Istanbul’s outskirts on July 31.

Chairman of the Senate committee on interior Mohammad Talha Mehmood directed the FIA to submit a report to the committee. He said it was a tragic incident and showed that measures being taken by the FIA to stop human smuggling were not enough.

“The FIA should start an intense crackdown on agents involved in human smuggling without any further delay,” he said in a statement.

He said agents involved in human smuggling were deceiving poor people who promises of green pastures and a better future. But, in fact, they deprived the poor of their hard-earned money and often pushed them into the jaws of death.

The committee expressed concerns over the inability of the FIA to stop human smuggling despite the fact that it was earning a bad name for the country.

Those suffocated in Turkey were among 80 people from Pakistan and Myanmar who had been crammed into the vehicle in the eastern province of Van for a 1,650-kilometre clandestine journey to Istanbul, according to Turkish officials.