ISLAMABAD, June 16: The UAE immigration authorities caught a Pakistani human trafficker at Dubai airport for trying to smuggle an Afghan woman and four children to Britain and deported all of them to Pakistan, official sources told Dawn on Thursday. Mohammad Fayaz was detected as a human smuggler when his Afghan clients landed at Dubai airport bearing Afghan passports but produced Pakistani passport for boarding their connecting flight to London.

On scrutiny, the visas stamped on the Pakistani passports of the Afghan passengers were found to have been forged, according to the sources. A woman assistant sub-inspector of the FIA immigration department allegedly had introduced the Afghan woman Noorya Khan to Fayaz who was paid Rs1 million for his services. None of the five Afghan children Noorya was taking to London was her own, the sources said.

Fayaz allegedly paid Rs500,000 to a sub-inspector of FIA immigration at Islamabad airport to allow him and his Afghan clients board a private airline’s flight to Dubai unchecked on June 12. However the immigration authorities at Dubai airport detected their fraud and deported them on June 14.

When contacted, FIA Immigration Department Director Tasaduq Hussain told Dawn that the incident was being investigated. “We know that some immigration officials and airlines staff indulge in human trafficking. We are trying to catch them and stop such activities,” he said.

It was Fayaz’s fourth attempt at human smuggling. “He succeeded three times. He used to time his smuggling operation with a particular shift of immigration staff,” the FIA official said.