KARACHI: The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in collaboration with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Australian government inaugurated the ‘Reception and support centre for returning migrants’ at the FIA immigration post at Ghaas Bandar on Thursday.

The number of deportees received at the immigration post at the Karachi port alone during 2014 was more than 2,000, all from Gulf countries, according to the IOM. But the post receiving these migrants had been functioning with the most basic amenities.

For this reason reception facilities were improved to enable humane and orderly reception of migrants, as well as provide social support to those in vulnerable situations. The victims of trafficking need to be helped and their exploiters need to be identified to restrict their illegal activities, and the reception centre aims to achieve these aims.

Australian High Commissioner Margaret Adamson was present on the occasion to extend the support of her government to the Pakistani government with regards to migration processing and border protection. She said: “This centre demonstrates the strong collaboration between Australia, Pakistan, and the IOM in seeking to address illegal migration flows and to support victims of human trafficking and migrant smuggling. Capacity building initiatives such as this centre will help Pakistan maintain regular migration pathways.”

FIA director Shahid Hayat spoke about how smuggling and human trafficking had assumed gigantic proportions and controlling them had become a matter of priority. “There is a lot of money involved and therefore there are a lot of people who take advantage of disadvantaged populations who are unaware,” he said.

The allure of a better life compels such people to place their trust in human traffickers and in the process they are “defrauded, divested of their money and resources, and left in the lurch”.

The officer called it a transnational and a global issue and highlighted the need for different governments and organisations to work simultaneously to curb it, and he expressed his belief that the support centre would aid them in this process.

The support of the government of Pakistan, he said, had also been very positive in this regard.

Davide Terzi, chief of mission IOM Pakistan, thanked the Australian government for the general and financial contributions to the support centre, as well as acknowledged the government of Pakistan’s continued support. “We hope this centre will be able to provide the much needed reception and support facilities to returning migrants, at a time when migrants are faced with harsh conditions and suffering due to the prevailing migration crisis,” he said.

He also pledged the IOM support to providing tailored capacity building training to national, public and private stakeholders to equip them with skills to effectively cater to the needs of the returning migrants.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2016