chilling death of ten Pakistanis during their bid to make an unauthorized entry into Dubai reflected colossal woes and anguish of illegal Pakistani immigrants, who pay hefty amounts to unscrupulous elements for greener pastures. Human trafficking is very common not only in Pakistan but in several developing countries of different continents. But the irony is that the official check on such practice in Pakistan is not as tight as it should be to save the poor lot from loot and plunder. There are hardly a few cases of conviction of the human traffickers. Every time, illegal immigrants are deported to Pakistan mostly from Gulf countries, they are freed after cursory questioning at the airports or seaports of their disembarkation in Pakistan. The problem becomes extremely grim and dismal when no serious hunt is launched to catch hold of the real culprits, who lure the poor into paying them handsomely for taking them abroad for economic reasons. The horrifying death of ten Pakistanis early this month shattered many people. A group of Pakistanis entered Iran by land and desired to cross into Dubai where they were hopeful for good jobs. The boat they were traveling in developed technical problems and they were stuck in the high seas for 10 days. Out of the 12 people that had risked entering Dubai illegally, ten Pakistanis and an Iranian sailor died due to starvation. The remaining three persons were rescued by fishermen who threw the bodies of the dead men into the sea. The four survivors later managed to reach Dera Ghazi Khan in southern Punjab and this is how the moving story came to light. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Pakistan that deals with the immigration matters and arraigns human traffickers and those deported to Pakistan for illegally entering any other country is ill-equipped to overcome the problem. Instances of prosecution of human traffickers, who keep looting the innocent people, are a few. “Agents working in Greece, Turkey and Pakistan are separate and over 1,000 euro per person are charged from the victims to transport them to Greece from Turkey. Sometimes parents unwittingly surrender their youngsters to a trafficker who lured families with the promise of good-paying jobs in the outer world for their children,” said a senior FIA official. “The most difficult aspect of investigating the crime was identification of the culprits because families of the persons did not complain unless their beloved were either deported or face some problem abroad. The FIA is working against the human traffickers and several gangs have already been smashed and various notorious human traffickers arrested. There is a need of creating awareness among the masses so that the people should start discouraging the agents, besides adopting a legal way for going abroad,” he said. Officials have the record of deportation of 22,894 Pakistani jobseekers from Oman over the past few years. But they have no clue about the number of arrests of human traffickers made so far. Most of these deportees were illiterate and had been smuggled to Muscat after they were made to cross the Pakistan-Iran border illegally near Mand Ballu, Balochistan. Off and on, deportations from Oman take place through ferries. These Pakistanis are found in extremely bad health for having been kept in jails in pathetic conditions, both physical and psychological. A leading Pakistani NGO has mostly been arranging for their return to Pakistan. The going rate of payment to human smuggler for taking an illegal Pakistani to a Gulf country varies. Generally, they get all the payment in the first go. They do guarantee their arrival in the given country, but disappear after the deportation. In July this year, three Pakistanis traveling in Europe on fake documents were deported and arrested by the FIA officials on their return. They were shifted to Anti-Human Smuggling Cell of the FIA after legal action was taken and the case was registered against them. Another fifty-five Pakistanis were deported from Greece last January. They had gone to Greece through Iran and Turkey. In July last year, as many as 325 people were deported from Turkey. Officials say the deportees wanted to enter Europe through Turkey and were arrested by the Turkish border security forces at different times. Many of them were arrested some one year back and remained in different jails of Turkey. Rackets of human smugglers send innocent people to Europe mainly Greece using land routes of Iran, Turkey and the Central Asian Republics. The traffickers manage to arrange genuine visas of Turkey for their clients by portraying them as young businessmen or students to deceive the immigration authorities of both Pakistan and Turkey. Many immigration consultants are also involved in sending people to Greece on job visas. After reaching Turkey and Cyprus, the victims are kept in dingy houses and basements and later the rackets transport them to Greece through different routes. The rackets have also hired local residents who facilitate them in transporting people in local public transport of closed vans. “I met a large number of Pakistani youth who were struck up in Cyprus because they did not have any traveling documents and could not come back home,” Mohammad Akram, a deportee, said. “The youth avoid going to police because in that case they would be arrested.
