The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has come hard on the US State Department for having an “unrealistic view” of the ground realities of Pakistan and said downgrading Pakistan in the field of human trafficking by Washington was unfair and based on unconvincing evidence obtained by the American Embassy in Islamabad. Reacting to the State Department's recent annual report for 2009 on human trafficking that downgraded Pakistan to the Tier-II Watch List, the FIA, without being diplomatic or too shy to confront the otherwise most powerful State Department, said, “The report of the US State Department does not mention its sources of information which, to say the least, has an unrealistic view of the ground realities of Pakistan's society and the capacity of its state institutions to deal with deep-rooted social and cultural issues,” according to a news report appearing in the leading English language daily The News. It added, “Downgrading Pakistan to Tier-II Watch List was rather unfair on the basis of inconclusive evidence or material acquired by the US Embassy.” The FIA, which is the top official body to check human trafficking, expressed its surprise over the State Department's findings, which show Afghanistan better than Pakistan although India stays on Tier-II Watch List along with Pakistan. “If not anything, some excellent efforts made by the FIA and other state institutions during 2008 have unfortunately been ignored,” the FIA said. The FIA admitted that although the State Department report raised some core inadequacies of our society and governance, it did not throw enough light on some important points that should have been considered in November 2008 before preparation of the report released by the State Department in June 2009 such as: Should the non-availability of data ignore the progress on ground? Whether the US Embassy asked the FIA for this data? Did the US Embassy officials tap the multiple sources to check/verify the progress being made in this regard? How was the data on convictions and complicity of government officers reflected in the report acquired by the US Embassy? The FIA is shocked how Pakistan can be downgraded when it actually performed well compared to the past years. Downgrading Pakistan to the Tier-II Watch List for performance in 2008, however, should be seen in comparison to its performance in 2007 when Pakistan was not in the Watch List category. Giving details of its improved performance during the year assessed, the FIA said: a) The number of passengers offloaded by the FIA on the basis of forged documents had increased from 518 in 2007 to 572 in 2008 while the passengers deported by other countries because of forged documents reduced from 174 in 2007 to 108 in 2008 b) The number of convictions reduced under the human trafficking law in 2008. This must be viewed against the backdrop of the black coat revolution during 2008. However, the quality of convictions registered substantial improvement and human smugglers were convicted even up to 10 years, which was not the case in earlier years c) The creation of Inter-Agency Task Force in 2005 was a landmark decision of the government in the direction of reducing illegal cross-border movement between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. It performed an excellent job of arresting 10,703 persons in 2007 attempting to cross the international border illegally but these interceptions reduced to 8,543 in 2008 due to the peculiar security circumstances of Baluchistan. Sharing the performance of the FIA for the first eight months of 2009, the agency said it clearly highlights an improvement over the corresponding period of the last year. These details included the number of persons offloaded on account of forged/suspected travel documents by various immigration check-posts of the country was 487 compared to 365 of the previous year. Likewise, the deportees received from other countries on account of forged documents as 49 in comparison to 77 of the last year, the greater number of offloaded persons due to suspected travel documents and lesser number of deportees received back on account of suspected documents clearly substantiates improved vigilance of immigration check-posts. Out of 69 Most Wanted Traffickers in the Red Book, the FIA has already arrested 12 this year and is vigorously pursuing early arrest of others. The FIA is improving the capacity of its Anti-Trafficking Units (ATUs) across the country, both in terms of its physical resources and training of its personnel. 278 officers of various ranks have been put through improved training courses in 2009. A focal group has been constituted at the FIA headquarters to coordinate, monitor and improve the performance of various stakeholders which includes provincial/federal law-enforcement agencies, NGOs, international agencies and other stakeholders like the foreign governments, etc. An Immigration Intelligence Unit has been raised in the FIA to gather information about networks operating locally and internationally in the field of human trafficking. An awareness campaign with the help of print/tele media, IGOs/NGOs and the local provincial governments has been planned in about 20 districts of the country which are most affected areas of potential illegal immigrants.
