KARACHI, March 21: The Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid on Thursday demanded that specific laws to handle the cross-border human trafficking be enacted so that the growing menace could be checked.

Speaking at a press conference, LHRLA chief Zia Awan referred to the recent incident in which a trafficking gang was arrested and 11 infants were recovered, and said in the absence of specific laws, many a times the traffickers could not be given exemplary punishment.

He said that the prime suspect of this case was also arrested in the year 2000 and many children were also recovered from him at that time but due to lack of evidence, he got bail in that case, but his arrest in the recent case had established that he was involved in the trafficking of children.

He said these children were being taken to Malta where they were to be given to families for adoption for approximately $ 20,000 each.

He said sometimes parents owing to poverty etc themselves gave the children, and as there were no specific laws to arrest parents so no action could be taken against them.

He said the prime suspect, Danes Charles, who was born in Pakistan but has a Maltese nationality, informed the LHRLA fact-finding team in the Gulshan-i-Iqbal Police Station, that he and his wife Concheta Charles were running an organization, United Christian Foundation, and the adoption work that his organisation was doing was legal, and that the parents of these children had given their children to him with their consent.

Mr Awan demanded that the governments of sending, receiving and transit countries must introduce a law specifically to protect the rights of trafficked women and children and that the trafficked women and children must be recognised as victims of trafficking and not as criminals.