LAHORE, Feb 15: Will the recently established Anti-Trafficking Unit of the Federal Investigation Agency check human smuggling?

After losing its important anti-crime and economic-crime wings to the National Accountability Bureau a couple of months ago, the agency has now become immigration oriented.

Only a handful of the employees of both wings opted to join NAB and those who were working with the agency on deputation have been sent back to their parent departments. However, to accommodate the staff of these wings the agency is creating new cells.

The ATU, established this month, has been functional in all FIA zonal offices in Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar. The head of a zonal office will be answerable to the FIA director general.

The unit will develop expertise within the agency to identify the human trafficking situation and investigate certain cases. Model shelter homes will also be established under the project to protect victims of human trafficking and coordinate with NGOs working in this regard.

It will launch campaigns to generate awareness among people especially to those living near border areas. Besides, it will coordinate with the FIA's passport circles and immigration wings.

FIA deputy director (Corporate Crime Circle) Syed Javed Husain, who has the additional charge of the ATU, told Dawn on Tuesday that the main aim of the ATU was to provide protection to victims and evidence gathered against culprits would be developed by specially trained investigators.

He said the unit would also take measures in identifying those victims, especially women who were smuggled in and out of Pakistan with the promise of providing jobs with handsome salaries. Such victims of the other countries would be shifted to shelter homes, he added.

He said the International Organization of Migration (IOM), the US embassy (narcotics affair section), the interior ministry and all home departments would coordinate with the agency in this regard.

He said the FIA director general was keen on taking more measures to control human smuggling and providing protection to victims. However, some officials are of the view that the Human Trafficking Ordinance should be amended to plug all legal loopholes and provide maximum punishment to the smugglers. It should also be amended with regard to dealing with those who take women abroad on the pretext of giving them jobs.

"Though the new unit will help analyze the situation of human smuggling and provide protection to victims, the agency will have to do more in tracking down rackets involved in sending the people abroad, especially to the Middle East, through sea routes," they added.

Over 100,000 Pakistanis have been deported from various Middle East countries during the last few years for illegal stay. They had reached there via sea routes.