RAWALPINDI: Three Pakistanis who were kidnapped in Turkey and released after 23 days of captivity were transferred to a detention centre on Wednesday, from where they will be deported to Pakistan along with other migrants.

A senior Federal Investigation Agency official dealing with migrants who travelled without authorisation and are held in Turkey and other countries, when asked about the number of Pakistanis living in detention centres in Turkey and waiting to be deported, could not give an exact number of people arrested by Turkish law enforcement for entering the country illegally.

After they are deported, the Pakistanis will be booked and arrested by FIA’s Anti-Human Trafficking Wing for illegally crossing Pakistani borders.

“Pakistani migrants who are deported to Islamabad from Turkey or other countries will be booked because they crossed Pakistan’s border illegally,” a senior FIA official said. He said the FIA is not aware of when the three kidnapping victims will be deported.

“Nobody knows when the suffering of the three young men will come to an end and how many days they will be kept in the detention centre,” said Mehtab Akhtar, a relative of one of the men, Zeeshan Ahmed.

Mr Ahmed, Ghulam Fareed and Mudassir Ali are residents of Rawat in Rawalpindi.

They left for Turkey a year ago, after borrowing money to pay travel agents.

They were kidnapped in early March and their unidentified abductors demanded $60,000 for their safe release from their families.

They were freed by the kidnappers without a ransom payment being made, and were later detained by Turkish police.

Mr Akhtar, who has been in touch with his cousin Mr Ahmed, said the three men were taken into custody by the Turkish police soon after they were freed by the kidnappers. They were administered first aid and he said Mr Ahmed told him he was recovering and his injuries were healing.

He said he spoke to Mr Ahmed on Wednesday morning, who told him they were shifted to a detention centre.

“Even another Pakistani, Noman Ahmed, who had been helping [the victims] and coordinating with their families in Pakistan during their kidnapping was arrested by Turkish police because he was also a migrant,” Mr Akhtar said, adding that Mr Ahmed said there were many people in the centre but could not count them.

Mr Ali’s father Abid Hussain told Dawn his son was safe and would be back in Pakistan in a couple of days.

“Mudassir was working at a bakery in Rawat when he decided to travel to Europe for a better life. He paid a travel agent Rs150,000 for the journey and started from Karachi. After a 15-day journey he reached Turkey,” Mr Hussain said.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2017