LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday offloaded 17 passengers from an Iraq-bound flight on the charges of travelling on forged document shareat the Allama Iqbal International Airport.

FIA Immigration wing Additional Director Imran Yaqoob told Dawn that the officials intercepted 17 Pakistani nationals who were trying to leave the country for Iraq on doctored travel documents.

Hayat Ansari, a human smuggler in the garb of a travel agent, who was travelling with them was also offloaded and arrested, he added.

A case has been lodged against Ansari under the anti-human trafficking laws. Most of the offloaded persons were in their 20s.

Mr Yaqoob said as per initial findings, the human smuggler had charged hefty amounts from the offloaded passengers for preparing their forged travel documents. However, under the recently amended laws, those trying to travel on doctored documents would not be booked as human smuggler(s)were responsible for the crime, he added.

Under amended laws, those trying to travel on doctored documents would not be booked

“Under the amended laws, FIR is registered against human smuggler(s) and not those who try to leave the country on forged documents. They are released after giving statements about the person(s) who received the amount for preparing their travel documents,” Mr Yaqoob said.

To a question about the monthly number of such cases surfacing in Lahore, he said, an average 15 to 20 people were intercepted by officials while attempting to leave for South Africa, Iraq and Europe on forged documents every month.

Mr Yaqoob said two passengers who were trying to leave the country for South Africa on doctored documents were also offloaded on Saturday and were handed over to the anti-trafficking human cell for recording their statement.

Earlier, the FIA had also introduced new rules under which those deported from Turkey and Greece would not be arrested as they were considered victims of such scams provided they entered these countries through land route and not by forged documents.

The FIA had taken the decision keeping in view a large number of Pakistanis deported every month from Turkey and Greece, mostly travelling without fake documents. They are lured by an agent mafia that transports them through land routes from Quetta to Iran, Turkey and Greece, says the FIA.

FIA Punjab (Zone-I) Director Muhammad Rizwan has introduced changes to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for handling the deportees.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2020