Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development was informed on Tuesday that additional link-offices were being set up in four foreign countries to curb human trafficking and illegal immigration. ‘Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), under its three-year restructuring plan, is opening up new link-offices at Turkey, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom to dismantle human-trafficking rackets,’ Director Anti-Human Trafficking Department FIA Shehzad Haider told the committee, which met with Hilal-ur-Rehman in the chair.
He said the new facilities would be functional soon as the Finance Ministry had approved the required budget in this regard. Some four link-offices, established with an objective to liaise with the law-enforcement counterparts of host countries, had already been operational in Iran, Greece, Muscat and Oman, he informed the panel while highlighting the government’s efforts to combat human-trafficking. He said every year, some 75,000 Pakistanis enter Europe, the United States and Middle East illegally by using land and air routes. Due to porous border, the traffickers usually travel to Iran with valid visas in order to reach Turkey and Greece illegally, he added. He said the seaports of Karachi, Gawadar and Jiwani were the easiest routes to go the Gulf States.
