GUJRAT: Two more Pakistani immigrants returned from Senegal on Sunday after a number of potential illegal immigrants opted for repatriation.

Official sources in FIA said the repatriation of Pakistani immigrants was a part of federal government efforts following the Mauritania-Morocco boat tragedy causing death of more than 40 Pakistanis.

The return of 22 more Pakistani survivors is expected to start from Monday ( today).

An FIA immigration official said two passengers – Muhammad Tayyab and Muhammad Arif – reached the Sialkot airport through Flight FZ-337 on Sunday.

During the scrutiny of their documents, he said, it was found that passengers had departed from the Faisalabad airport to Sengal on a visit visa.

Their agent, Muhammad Ijaz of Hafizabad, had charged them Rs3.5 million each for sending them to Spain. But he sent them to Senegal. They said the agent had also extorted a sum of Rs 2 million from their families.

Both the passengers were later handed over to the anti-human trafficking cell of Gujranwala FIA Zone.

Earlier, on Saturday, four passengers had reached Sialkot from Senegal and Mauritania.

Meanwhile, in FIA action against human smugglers connected to recent Morocco boat tragedy, at least 13 cases have so far been lodged. Five nominated human traffickers have been arrested in connection with the cases lodged against them.

Abdul Qadir Qamar, FIA director of Gujranwala Zone, told Dawn the names of 18 suspects in the Moroccan boat case had been placed on the stop of the list as well as a formal process for blocking passports of two human traffickers had also been initiated.

He said three bank accounts and a vehicle of human traffickers had also been seized by the FIA whereas more teams were in the field to conduct raids for the arrest of suspects.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2025