Smuggling People

There is no mechanism in place to check intending immigrants within the country

Lahore: How a bus carrying Pakistani teenagers intending to illegally migrate to Europe via Iran and Turkey was identified and impounded by the Federal Investigation Agecny (FIA) back in 2018 makes an interesting story. But sadly, the concerned institutions are yet to develop a mechanism of effective coordination to check human smuggling.

The 2018 impounding of the bus was the result of a tip-off received by the CIA in Gujrat area of Punjab province. An assistant director of the FIA, requesting anonymity, told Bol News that after the tip off, he headed for Gujrat’s main bus stand.

“I found the suspected bus, in which a few teenagers were sitting, “he said. “It was headed for Quetta, from where, according to our intelligence reports, the intending migrants would attempt to cross into Iran.”

So according to his plan, the FIA official bought a ticket for Dera Ghazi Khan, a town on the border between Punjab and Sindh, and got into the same bus.

“Just as our intelligence reports had speculated, the driver kept receiving phone calls from suspected human smugglers asking him to pick up so many intending migrants from the next stop, and so on,” he said, adding that he, too, was in touch with his team in the area, keeping them up-to-date on the progress.

By the time the bus reached the Punjab-Balochistan border, there were some 25 teenagers on board. The police was already waiting at the spot, and it stopped the bus. During the body search of the passengers, they found that all the intending migrants were carrying passports in their baggages.

Following the leads provided by the apprehended teenagers, the authorities managed to reach and arrest the human traffickers involved.

But this is just a one-off incident. As inquiries by Bol News show, in most cases the human smugglers are able to ship their youthful clients to the Iranian border without much hassle. This is because there is still no mechanism between the FIA and the other law enforcement agencies to counter human trafficking. As a result, Pakistan remains among the top destinations from where illegal migration to Europe via Iran and Turkey continues unabated.

The land route for such migration is the most affordable means for hundreds of young people from Punjab who travel across the rusty Balochistan landscape to cross into Iran and further on to Europe each year.

Moreover, the administrative divisions of Gujrat and Gujranwala are known as the ‘most fertile’ territories for human smugglers as a majority of the intending immigrants hail from these areas. This is evident from the fact that since 2019, more than 4,000 people hailing from Gujrat division have been deported by countries they illegally entered.

These migrations continue despite the fact that Pakistan has established FIA’s liaison offices in Iran, Turkey and Greece to help counter the flow. Informed sources attribute this to a lack of institutional coordination at home.

Sarfaraz Virk, who is Director of the FIA Lahore Zone, told Bol News that there was no institutional coordination among the law enforcement agencies to check human trafficking.

“It is not within the ambit of the FIA or any other institution to stop people from traveling within the country,” he says. So if we wish to stop human smuggling, we need to strengthen the performance of the border control authorities.”

Then there is the question as to how a 15-year-old minor can obtain a passport, says Virk. “The FIA officials do probe travelers on the country’s airports, but there is no such system in place to check intending migrants on land routes.”

According to him, whenever deportees are sent back to Pakistan, “we question them to know about the human traffickers who arranged their travels. We always take action whenever someone dies in a foreign country during such illegal journey.”

He said the FIA have a full-fledge office at Balochistan’s capital, Quetta, and that they coordinate with the local law enforcement agencies as and when they get a tip.

To a question, he said human trafficking was among the most heinous crimes in the world and there should be special efforts to counter it. “People that take the illegal route abroad are driven by poverty, inflation and social issues, but they need to be made aware of the risks involved. This is the reason I have ordered a special crackdown on human trafficking which will also sensitise people about dangers involved.”