KARACHI, Feb 24: Ninety Pakistani job seekers were rescued by a patrolling unit of Pakistan Navy which spotted them stranded on a barren island some 270kms west of Karachi.

According to an ISPR spokesman, the batch was spotted on Astola Island in very bad shape because of dehydration. The Navy unit eventually handed them over to an official of the interior ministry, the spokesman said.

Most of them belonged to upcountry areas and had paid a substantial amount of money to an agent who had promised ferrying them to Dubai and other parts of the Middle East.

The spokesman said he had no information about how these people had been ferried and abandoned on the island near Ormara. He said it was for the concerned agencies to identify and locate the agent who had cheated them.

Meanwhile, sources said that the arrested job seekers might be handed over to the Passport Circle of the Federal Investigation Agency for legal proceeding against the intending illegal emigrants.

Deputy director of the Passport Circle told Dawn that the job seekers would be booked under Passport Act as they were apparently attempting to leave the country without valid travel documents.

He said that those found involved in the human smuggling would be booked under section-4 of the newly promulgated Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance which provided for a minimum of 10-year imprisonment.