RAWALPINDI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Monday launched a crackdown on human traffickers in an attempt to check smuggling of immigrants, especially to Turkey and Greece.

On the directives of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, the FIA formed a raiding team which arrested two suspected human smugglers from Rawalpindi Saddar. Both the accused were already on the wanted list of the FIA.

A senior official of the FIA said Mirza Iftikhar Ahmed and Mohammad Asif had been declared as proclaimed offenders in separate human smuggling cases registered against them.

Since the migrant crisis started in Europe, a large number of Pakistani illegal immigrants have been arrested in Turkey, Greece and Saudi Arabia and deported to Pakistan.

According to the FIA, more than 310 illegal Pakistani immigrants arrested by Turkish, Greece, Saudi Arabian and British law enforcement agencies were deported to Pakistani in May alone.

Investigation into the cases of illegal immigrants and human trafficking showed that human smuggling was being carried out by land, sea and air from Pakistan. The smugglers also used rented vehicles and often changed their addresses and phone numbers.

An illegal immigrant told Dawn that migrants were crowded in buses, trucks or boats by human smugglers due to which serious accidents occurred frequently.

Syed Mubeen Shah, 22, who belonged to Gujrat, was among the Pakistanis who were deported to Islamabad by Turkish authorities on May 26. Later, he was handed over to the FIA in Gujranwala who sent him to the jail there.

The father of the deportee, Syed Azmat Shah, told Dawn that despite the passage of several days he had not been able to reunite with his son.

“I hope my son will be released on Tuesday as he has been granted bail by the court,” Shah added.

Since the security situation in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria worsened, powerful gangs of human smugglers in Pakistan have become active to smuggle people to Europe through Iran and Turkey.

Director Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Islamabad, Mazharul Haq, suggested that Umrah visa should also be regularised by the government because whenever people overstayed in Saudi Arabia they were caught and subjected to inhuman treatment.

However, he did not say how many Pakistani illegal immigrants taken to Turkey by human smugglers had been waiting to be pushed into Europe or being kept in detention centres in Turkey or Greece.

Meanwhile, the FIA immigration staff offloaded four passengers who were trying to travel to Estonia in a Turkish airline from Benazir Bhutto International Airport on Monday.

The FIA officials found the work visas of the four passengers as suspicious and offloaded them. The officials identified the passengers as Fayyaz Khan, Mohammad Afzal, Wajid Ali and Mohammad Sajid.

They were later shifted to the FIA anti-human smuggling wing for further investigation. All the four passengers were from Mansehra, KP.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2016