GUJRAT: Abysmally low conviction rate in human smuggling cases and strong urge among the youth in the Gujranwala region comprising six districts to move to ‘greener pastures’ are the major reasons for thriving illegal trade.

According to sources in the Federal Investigation Agency, which is responsible for checking the menace, there is no human smuggling convict in four jails of the region for the last several months.

There are hundreds of human traffickers operating in Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot and Wazirabad tehsil of Gujranwala district. A large number of them have never been arrested and are running the rackets either from abroad (Iran and Turkey) or from various parts of the rural areas of this region.

Sources said there were six to seven dozen traffickers behind bars facing trial but they, as the record suggests, earn freedom within weeks or in a few months by striking deals with complainants, FIA officials and by paying meagre amount of fine imposed by the court.

Sources say that 80 per cent of the arrested agents are never convicted due to settlement between the illegal immigrants and the agents. A special FIA court has been working at Gujranwala which hears and decides the cases of human trafficking and other cases sent by the FIA from across the region.

The FIA would get active against human traffickers whenever there is any major tragedy like the killing of illegal immigrants by border forces, death due to suffocation in containers, boat capsize or at the hands of the Turkey-based Kurdish mafias. Some immigrants would often get kidnapped or killed even by the agents on the issues of payment of settled amount.

The recent killing of 20 youths from Guj­rat, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot and Gujran­wala districts in Turbat area of Balochistan has again compelled the FIA to launch an operation against the human traffickers.

Official sources say that around 200 Pakistanis have been killed during the last decade while attempting to cross the borders to reach Europe. An overwhelming majority of them belonged to the Gujranwala region, but the human traffickers involved have never been booked or convicted on stringent charges like murder.

Gujrat and Mandi Bahauddin districts are said to be the hub of human trafficking. The FIA set up its police station in Gujrat a few years ago to eliminate the menace, but so far it has failed to make any difference.

Chaudhary Sarwar, who heads the Gujrat FIA circle, told Dawn that his team had arrested at least 135 land route agents during the current year and completed investigation into 276 different cases, including that of Hundi, Hawala and human trafficking, out of which challans of 254 cases were sent to the court.

According to him, around 125 suspects in these different cases have been convicted so far, but he did not give the exact number of convictions in human trafficking cases. He said a sum of Rs3.68 million was recovered from human traffickers in response to cases lodged against them.

Official sources said the FIA’s regional court in Gujranwala had imposed a fine of Rs56.7m in some 1600 human trafficking cases during the last three years.

A Gujrat-based senior lawyer, who handles FIA cases, says there is a pressing need to amend laws dealing with human trafficking cases to enhance punishment.

Greener pastures

Sources said around 30,000 illegal Pakistani immigrants were deported from Iran, Turkey and Greece in the last one year. Most of them would again try again to reach these countries through the same illegal channel.

Historically, the trend of settling abroad, particularly in Europe and other western countries by illegally crossing the border, began in Gujrat and Jhelum districts back in late 1960s and early 70s when Nek Alam, a well-known figure of Alampur Gondlan, a village in Kharian tehsil of Gujrat district, had helped thousands of locals from the region to reach various European countries, including Scandinavia.

At that time it was not so risky to travel through land routes as there were little visa restrictions for the Pakistanis in most of the countries. Crossing the international borders (Iran, Turkey and Greece) illegally became risky some 25 years ago, but the trend of settling abroad never stopped.

The main target of human trafficking agents has been the illiterate and unskilled rural youth belonging to low-income groups. What drives them to spend money beyond their means and risk their lives is the financial status of their relatives and friends who are settled abroad and have built palatial houses in rural areas, besides buying commercial properties in various towns of Gujrat district.

Real estate prices in semi-urban and semi-rural areas of Gujrat district are never less than major urban and commercial centres of Pakistan due to the great interest and investment by the expatriate community in their native areas.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2017