Credit for elimination of trafficking goes to police
AMRAIZ KHAN
Though Pakistan’s ranking in the US State Department report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) 2022 has been improved, interestingly the role of FIA in this regard remained almost zero.
All the cases and actions made in this effect were done by the local police, said an FIA officer on condition of not to be named.
A senior officer of FIA performing duties in Anti Human Trafficking Cell (AHTC) of FIA confessed to the reality saying, “Number of cases registered on Human Trafficking with AHTC is zero”.
It is worth mentioning here that Pakistan in the past remained on Tier 2-Watch List, however, was upgraded in status by being taken off the “watchlist” and now the country is only on Tier 2.
TIP calls for action against trafficking in human beings. The countries categorised under Tier 2 are those governments that do not fully meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with these standards.
Pakistan remains in Tier 2 on the country trafficking scale but has been removed from the “watchlist”, which means in case of a lack of further progress, the country would be downgraded to Tier 3, and sanctions would follow.
This is a step forward from last year when the report on the performance of 188 countries stated that “the government of Pakistan does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.”
In Pakistan major role in this regard is of FIA which is supposed to take action against those involved in human smuggling and human trafficking.
But unfortunately, instead of playing any positive role in this regard FIA Immigration authorities and FIA, AHTC were engaged in activities otherwise. In other words, one can say that the FIA has put the future of Pakistan in jeopardy. Pakistan violated the UN Charter and violated its own laws. According to PSOM Act 2018 no action can be taken against the victim. But FIA Immigration authorities deputed at Allama Iqbal International Airport continue to violate the rules of PSOM Act 2018.
Despite the court orders, people who were deported from Turkey, Greece are being detained for legal action. Above actions of the Immigration authorities were also in violation of Standing orders No 3/2018 FIA. As per actions of Immigration authorities in this regard cases were registered against nine such deprotees coming back from Greece and Turkey. They were sent to FIA police station for legal action in sheer violation of PSOM Act 2018. It is pertinent to mention here that section 8 of the PSOM Act 2018 defends the rights of such victims and stops FIA immigration authorities from taking action against such deportees. On July 28 this month cases were registered against 52 such deportees who came back from Turkey, Greece and other European countries. The FIA authorities have been restrained by PSOM ACT 2018, FIA special order and Supreme Court orders to take any legal action against the deported passengers who are called victims. Last year, the government had launched a comprehensive National Action Plan to combat human trafficking, but little progress has been made in this regard.
The FIA finds itself strained with minimal resources and capacity because of which it has remained unable to achieve the targets of the plan. Lack of cohesion among the various law enforcement agencies, absence of reliable data on trafficking, and poor implementation of anti-trafficking laws have further impeded the process of tackling the problem effectively, said an officer of FIA seeking anonymity. The government’s lackluster attitude towards the issue is worrisome because nearly half of the population of Pakistan constitutes women of which a large proportion is threatened by traffickers, said a report of the US State department.
When contacted Director FIA Lahore, Jahanzeb Nazir defended the action being taken by Immigration Authorities against deportees and said, “Every deportee cannot be declared as victim since most of the peoples fall prey to agents knowingly that they were being transported abroad illegally”.
Deputy Director Immigration FIA, Bilal Tariq said that how can we treat every deportee as a victim when he has not even traveled history of his departure. He was of the view that through legal travel a person prepares his passport first then contacts any Embassy for Visa purposes and then he goes to the airport to have a flight to his country concerned. But in cases of deportees they approach a human smuggler who takes them to Quetta first then he illegally helps them to cross into the Iranian territory to further trespassing of Greece international border.
