Desperate men forced to sneak across borders

Published April 13, 2015
This June 30, 2013 photo shows foreign labourers waiting in a queue at the Saudi immigration offices in al-Khazan district west of Riyadh. — AFP file photo
This June 30, 2013 photo shows foreign labourers waiting in a queue at the Saudi immigration offices in al-Khazan district west of Riyadh. — AFP file photo

**Each year, thousands of Pakistanis seek their fortunes abroad. But most of these fortune-hunters are not able to leave the country through proper channels, leading them straight into the arms of human traffickers who take advantage of their desperation and, for a goodly sum, agree to take them across borders.

Men, women, children and even the elderly, risk life and limb and travel under appalling conditions in the hopes of finding a better future.

In this special report, Dawn looks at the human smuggling trade from several aspects to understand why the illicit trade is flourishing.**

ISLAMABAD: Forty-year-old M was desperate to join his brother in the United States. He had already spent one year with his brother in Baltimore city, in the State of Maryland, on a tourist visa. But he was desperate to make it back – even though he had been back home for four years now and his multiple entry visa had expired.

But so desperate was he that he convinced his brother to let him travel on his (the brother’s) US passport. Accompanied by his brother’s wife, the desperate man used his brother’s passport to get into Canada, where he claimed he was gay and applied for asylum.

Unemployment, inflation and the poor quality of life in Pakistan are pushing an ever-growing number of men to seek their fortunes abroad. And this journey is undertaken by all means, fair and foul.

Naeem Ahmed, owner of a travel consultancy, told Dawn that over time, fewer and fewer people are opting to go to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE), which used to be popular destinations for Pakistani labour right up until the mid-2000s.

“A large number of people want to go to Europe, others try for South Africa or Australia,” he said.

“Those who cannot get a student visa or a work visa try to travel on forged documents. A large number of people also use illegal land and sea routes,” he said.

According to him, some are aiming for political asylum and travel without legal documents.

“Such individuals allegedly bribe officials at airports to allow them to travel without verification of their documents. In the past, so many cases like this were sent back from the UAE while trying to get into Europe. Now, everybody prefers to use direct flights to land in Europe and immediately seek asylum,” he said.

“But with each passing day, it is getting harder and harder to slip in through the cracks, because technology is advancing at an astonishing rate. Machine readable passports now make it impossible to change the photograph on the passport,” he said.

This is what happened to Sarfraz Ahmed, 28, back in 2009.

A resident of Sheikhupura, he had already tried to work in Kuwait, but failed to clear a health exam. Three years later, in 2009, he tried to go to Timor-Leste.

The young man paid Rs 1.4 million to an agent for a visa but when he reached his destination, he was immediately deported.

Only way(s) to travel

An official from an investigating agency, requesting anonymity, said that at the moment, there were three ways to get out of the country illegally: by air, through land or sea.

“People who try to escape abroad by air usually forge documents or bribe airport officials. Those who use the land route usually go through Afghanistan onto the central Asian countries to eventually make it into Europe,” he said.

A similar plan was hatched by Sarfraz, before he was deported. When he returned to Pakistan, he was teased mercilessly by his relatives for squandering his family’s money. “I knew then that I had to get away,” he says.

He then tried again and, this time, entered Iran from Quetta via the Taftan border. “After going from city to city, including Zahedan and Tehran, I finally reached the Iran-Turkey border,” he said.

“There, it seemed as if the whole village was involved in the trafficking business. I was instructed by an agent – who received me in Iran and took me to the Turkish border – that I was to stay there,” he said.

“Every day, more men would arrive at the village, doubtlessly after having paid off some agent or the other,” he remembers.

He was told that when there were 50 of them, they would be allowed to cross the border.

“After a week, my agent told me that he was leaving. The moment I would escape into Turkey had arrived. When night fell, we started and walked all night. I was told by others there that we were lucky to be crossing in the summer; those who had tried this in the winter died because of the cold.

“My agent in Pakistan had already told me that I should wear joggers because it will be a tough journey. Altogether, there were around 80 to 100 men, women and children in our group. The men managed but it was not easy going for the women and children, so we had to rest frequently,” he said.

“Our guides did not have weapons, but they were careful and did not cook anything on the way because fire and the smell of food would be noticeable from a distance. They had Iranian dry fruits and other dry edible items that we subsisted on for many days,” he said.

The agents who accompanied the group handed them over to other handlers in Turkey, in a town nearly 24 hours drive from the Turkish capital.

“We were dropped off in Istanbul, where I soon found work in a factory. Initially, they paid me around Rs 60,000. But as I got better, my salary went up to around Rs 100,000 a month. Food and lodging were free,” he said.

“Those who use the sea route often cross the Iranian border and head by boat towards Turkey, on their way to Europe. But there are still some people who try to get into the UAE and other countries on smuggling ships,” he said.

Complicit officials?

In October 2014, 10 Afghan nationals travelled from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport to United Kingdom on fake documents. All of them were taken into custody at the Heathrow airport. A number of officials who were responsible for checking their documents and stopping illegal travel are now being investigated.

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director Inam Ghani told Dawn that FIA can only check those persons who use legal entry and exit points to go out and come in the country. Those who use illegal routes are caught either caught by Rangers before crossing into countries such as Iran and Afghanistan, or by the coast guards who monitor sea routes.

“The key reason for the extra vigilance by the authorities even in the traditionally relaxed countries of Europe is the rise in cases of terrorism,” Mr Ghani said.

“Now, digital records of almost everyone exist. There is CCTV footage of people walking on the streets or traffic cameras that spot people on busy roads. Therefore, tracing anybody and forwarding the data along with a picture is job that is done in a matter of minutes now.”

As a result of this digitisation, lying to the authorities has become almost impossible in developed countries. Once a foreigner is caught in any of these countries, their date is forwarded to the embassy or mission of the relevant country.

However, reporting the deportation is a complicated process, involving a number of departments under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Interior Ministry.

Pakistani missions abroad play a key role in the deportation process, as local authorities get in touch with them to ensure that the person being deported is indeed a Pakistani citizen.

The information is forwarded to the relevant desk at the Foreign Office, which passes it on to the interior ministry. The interior ministry disseminates the information to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and the FIA.

“Nadra certifies that the person in question is a Pakistani and this information is forwarded back to the mission in the country where the person is being deported from,” said FO spokesperson Tasnim Aslam, adding, “At the same time, the information are provided to the FIA by the interior ministry and the Pakistani mission provides a one-page passport for the deported person to travel back on.”

Mr Ghani, however, said that “machine-readable passports and other technology had made travelling on forged documents nearly impossible. However, entry and exit stamps can still be faked by cunning agents,” he said.

“We are looking to print the entry/exit time on the passport, which will then be verifiable and resolve the issue of fake stamps,” he said.

Mr Ghani said that Pakistanis, who had been deported without legal documents, could be divided into three groups.

“Those who come to Pakistan voluntarily from different countries are placed in the first group; they are only interviewed at the airport and are then free to go,” he said.

“In the second group are those who are sent back from the European Union, where they have been stuck due to unavailability of documents. They are also interviewed and let go,” he said.

“Those who have been sent back because their documents were found to be forged are placed in the third group. They are arrested by the Anti-Human Trafficking Circle (AHTC) of FIA and they are interrogated about how they acquired the fake documents,” he said.

“If they refuse to provide us the information we need, they have to face legal action,” Mr Ghani said.

Though he is back in Pakistan, Sarfraz plans to return to Turkey through the same agent and the same route, in the summers. But he says he will take a break before trying again.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2015

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