800 human traffickers arrested, Nisar lauds FIA's performance
Traffickers and smugglers defame Pakistan abroad & take advantage of the poor citizens: Nisar
Dunya News Report (Humaira Sajid)
ISLAMABAD - Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested over 800 human traffickers across the country in the past three months, FIA informed the top security potentate on Wednesday.
Human Trafficking Cell of FIA performed 70 raids in different sites of the country, mostly in Punjab and detained 827 human traffickers: 218 proclaimed offenders, 13 most wanted by the agency, 71 declared proclaimed offenders by the courts and 525 involved in different cases.
The FIA sources said the accused were involved in illegally sending people to different countries of which the most widely used route of trafficking and smuggling is Pakistan to Greece via Iran and Turkey. This information was shared in a conference on ‘Human trafficking and Migrant smuggling’ at the Pearl Continental hotel late in 2015. A collaboration between United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Pakistan office, and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the conference brought delegates from 50 countries to discuss global trends in human trafficking and migrant smuggling.
The FIA also claimed to have recovered Rs11.46 billion in 2014-2015 from the possession of several accused who had robbed different people. An Anti-Human Trafficking Cell (AHTC) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) recently apprehended an official of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) on charges of issuing a fake ID card, said an FIA official.
Additional Director FIA says, Abid Sarfaraz working for NADRA as D.O., was arrested on charges of issuing an ID card to an Afghan national named Khaista Gul.
Terming it a blot for humanity, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said human traffickers defame Pakistan abroad and take advantage of the poverty stricken citizens. He had asked the Foreign Office and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) late in 2015 to devise a comprehensive strategy to eliminate the menace of human trafficking and their performance. While he expressed satisfaction over the agency’s current performance he also stressed that it needed to be improved.
Last year, as many as 1,310 smugglers were arrested from Pakistan, out of which 23 belonged to the ‘most-wanted’ category.
According to a representative of UNODC Headquarters Vienna Data and Analysis Section, Fabrizio Sarrica, the number of deportees belonging to Pakistan has remained between 50,000 and 80,000. Sarrica presented extracts from a 2014 research on global trafficking patterns. Samples of 40,000 detected victims of trafficking from 128 countries were used for this research. The findings revealed that Greece is the first transit for Pakistani migrants while Iran and Turkey were identified as destinations. “Networks that operate as centralized hubs to Bangkok, Malaysia and Indonesia through sea also exist,” he said.
Wajid Zia, the additional director of FIA general immigration, said that Pakistan serves as a source, transit and a destination country for migrants and traffickers due to its porous Iran and Afghanistan borders. “It serves both as a destination and transit for Afghanis, Bangladeshis and [people from] other neighboring countries, who use it as a transit to get through to Western Europe,” he said. “However, 95 per cent of Pakistani migrants are in Middle East for work. Our deportees also hail from the Gulf States, mainly due to reasons of overstaying.”
Zia further said that Pakistan has remained a transit for traffickers and smugglers for the past four decades largely due to the situation in Afghanistan. He said that 99 per cent of the smuggling is carried out through unauthorized routes. “Complications in tracking also arise due to the deteriorating conditions in Baluchistan,” he said.
Pakistan has been identified as one of the key sources of women trafficking globally. According to the ‘Global Slavery Index’ report compiled by the Australia-based campaign Walk-Free, Pakistan has the third highest population of enslaved individuals in the world. A recent report released by the US State Department highlights that Pakistan may join the Tier 2 Watchlist for Human Trafficking, as it has not undertaken satisfactory measures to combat the issue. If that happens, the country may face suspension of financial aid amongst losing other privileges. Currently, Pakistan is also facing challenges in implementing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), a critical anti-trafficking law which requires coordination with foreign governments to prevent trafficking and protect victims.
According to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)’s Red Book, the number of ‘most-wanted’ human trafficking networks from Pakistan was 141 in 2013, 132 in 2012 and 95 in 2011. The majority of these human traffickers belonged to Gujrat and Gujranwala, while the rest were from Sialkot, Rawalpindi, Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. This network of 141 human traffickers encompasses over 7,890 individuals, who illegally transported 8,234 Pakistanis through various routes to the Middle East, European and African countries last year. The FIA has also intercepted over 61,200 people at the Pakistan-Iran and Pakistan-Afghanistan borders since 2009. The most common routes used by traffickers include Gulistan, Chaman, Rabat, Nushki, Chagai, Mand Ballu, Panjgur, Taftan and Turbat.
The Journal of Pakistan Medical Association states that Pakistan is both a country of origin and destination for women trafficking. Like other regions in the globe, women in this part of the world are the most vulnerable to the trafficking phenomenon which is associated with poverty, gender discrimination, lack of education, and ignorance about legal rights.
A Global Report on Trafficking in Persons launched by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shed light on this crime and unearths the cause behind it. While describing poverty as one of the prime determinants of women trafficking it said deprivation from resources further aggravates the problem in Pakistan. Poverty encompasses various dimensions which include lack of access to basic services, insecurity in daily life, disempowerment as human agency, and the inability to speak out with dignity. As a result, the poor parents are forced to sell their daughters into domestic servitude, prostitution or forced marriages.
Gender inequalities and disparities in Pakistan are the added causes of women trafficking and exploitation. In Pakistani society, male has more influence, while woman has always been seen as a submissive daughter, sister or wife, the report added. Moreover, in Pakistan early marriages and traditional dowry practices also supplement the financial burden; hence, forcing parents to sell their daughters.
Lack of awareness and illiteracy are the other major factors related to women trafficking. In Pakistan, the female literacy rate is only 39% against 64% among males. The report concluded that women’s trafficking in Pakistan is interconnected with socio-cultural, gender and economic inequalities and inequities ultimately leading to various health threats.
