LAHORE, Feb 19: The Federal Investigation Agency has asked the Director Protector of Immigrants to provide details about the recruitment agencies working in the Lahore division to launch an operation against the illegal ones.

The FIA (passport cell) directed the DPI on Thursday under section 94 CrPC to provide the details in a week about the recruitment agencies working in Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur and Okara.

The agency reportedly decided to take action against the illegal recruitment agencies following the increase in their number, especially in Lahore. FIA (passport circle) Assistant Director Mushtaq Ahmad told Dawn on Thursday that the agency would take action against the illegal recruitment agencies after receiving the report from the DPI.

He said the agency had received a number of complaints against the illegal agencies that had arranged the travel of people to the developed countries, especially the Middle East, on the pretext of providing them jobs there.

The illegal agencies used to prepare fake recruitment contracts and often disappeared after charging huge sum of money from those aspiring to get jobs like of labourer in abroad, Mr Mushtaq said.

According to a report, the illegal recruitment agencies and fake travel agents in Pakistan are sending over 100,000 people annually abroad by using illegal means.

It also reveals that more than 10,000 Pakistanis are languishing in different prisons of the UK, US, France, Italy, Canada, Spain, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and South Africa on the charges of possessing invalid documents.

The FIA officials said the illegal recruitment agencies used different methods to hoodwink people. They hired foreigners to conduct interviews of the locals to give an impression that they were genuine, the officials said.

They said the FIA had arrested some recruiting agents in the past involved in hiring Japanese and Koreans to trap the people. Capt Muhammad Yousaf (retired), the owner of an illegal agency in Lahore, told this reporter the other day in the FIA's custody that he had sent over 2,000 people to the Middle East.

The illegal agencies also used to give advertisements for the recruitment in the national newspapers to attract people. The FIA had recently arrested Hamid Zaman, a famous illegal recruitment agent, who had deprived a large number of people of hundreds and thousands of rupees on the pretext of providing them jobs in Canada.