An accident occurred on a boat of immigrants going to Spain from the West African country of Mauritania. Fifty people including forty-four Pakistanis were killed. The Prime Minister called for a report from the concerned authorities and said that strict action will be taken against the people involved in human trafficking and no negligence will be tolerated in this regard. Strong measures are being taken against human trafficking.
Like many countries in the world, Pakistan also faces the problem of human trafficking, which is said to earn billions of dollars annually for those involved in this crime. In the past years, there have been incidents in which people who want to go abroad fell into the hands of agents who send them abroad illegally, and many of those who chose the dangerous route have even died.
The main reasons for this problem in Pakistan are the increase in unemployment and rising inflation, due to which ordinary citizens are forced to leave their homeland legally or illegally. According to Pakistani authorities, efforts are underway to prevent human trafficking in the country, but human rights activists say that the results of these efforts are still not satisfactory.
In the US State Department’s annual report on human trafficking, Pakistan is being classified as a “Tier Two” from 2022. According to the interpretation made in the report, this tier includes those countries that do not meet the standards of the US human trafficking law, but appear to be making sufficient efforts in this regard.
Among Pakistanis who are victims of human trafficking, the largest number and the most tragic situation are girls and women. There are laws against human trafficking in Pakistan, but the lack of implementation is visible everywhere. One of the main reasons for the problem in this matter is the fact that it is not clear in practice what the law enforcement agency is supposed to do. Human trafficking is an international problem.
In Pakistan, the responsibility of preventing it is given to the FIA, but in fact, many cases of human trafficking fall under the jurisdiction of local or provincial governments. The lack of clarity of the situation in this regard gives rise to many problems. For example, to whom should a case of human trafficking be reported in the early stages? Who will run the case and what will become of this case? These are the questions, the answers to which require a regular, clear and concrete strategy. In fact, criminals take advantage of the situation of youth struggling with poverty, deprivation, hopelessness and economic problems, showing them dreams of a better future. Tax and extort money from them and send them abroad through illegal means.
Agents involved in human trafficking in Sindh and South Punjab take innocent men and women abroad to beg in the name of jobs. Pakistani women and girls fall victim to traffickers due to coercion and deprivation and false promises of a better life as they are the most vulnerable section of the society.
According to some estimates, every year at least 20,000 people go illegally from Pakistan to Europe and other countries, most of them use the route from Balochistan province through Iran and Turkey to Greece and Italy. Many of these illegal immigrants lose their lives during the journey after being shot by border guards, extreme weather conditions, capsizing of boats in high seas or disputes over compensation with illegal agents.
Young people who dream of a better future do not hesitate to risk their lives for this journey, considering access to Europe as the fulfillment of their dream. From the rocky mountains of Iran to the seas of Greece, countless young people lose their lives every year. The bitter truth is that the largest number of immigrants are Pakistani youth.
After every major disaster, the government announces that it will step up operations against human traffickers, but then these operations are suppressed over time. Human trafficking is rampant in certain districts of Punjab and Azad Kashmir and according to an FIA report, 15,000 Pakistanis try to travel abroad illegally every year, with a large number of them becoming victims of accidents. That infamy comes separately in the part of the country. According to a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), not only Pakistanis, but also people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and many other countries in the region use this route and method to illegally go to Europe. .
According to IOM, illegal immigrants use three routes from Pakistan to Europe, Middle East and Australia, of which Baluchistan, Iran and Turkey are the most used routes to Europe. Apart from Taftan, the border area of Pakistan and Iran, the secret routes of Mundbalu and Pashin are used on this route.
Organized groups involved in the illegal migration of people extort millions of rupees from migrants for everything from preparing fake documents to land, sea and air travel. An agent charges a minimum of $2500 to ship from Iran to Turkey by land from Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta, while $4,000 is charged to ship to Greece. According to these data, around two thousand people go out of Pakistan illegally every month and these are the people whose data is known to the concerned people.
The reason for such an alarming rate of human trafficking in Pakistan is not at all due to lack of attention to legislation in this regard. Rather, the fact is that there are many laws in this regard. Under the Pakistan Penal Code, various forms of human trafficking including extortion, trafficking of children for sexual purposes, enslavement of free citizens are strictly prohibited and the perpetrators are subject to fines. There are punishments up to life imprisonment.
In this regard, other laws to be framed include the Bonded Labor System Abolition Act (BLSA) and the Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance. However, the main reason for the failure to control human trafficking and human trafficking is the conflict between these laws and the laws framed under the Pakistan Penal Code. For example, accused persons arrested under Pachto can be sentenced to a minimum of seven and a maximum of fourteen years in prison. On the other hand, under the Pakistan Penal Code, there are regular punishments for those arrested on charges similar to those charges, which leaves the subordinate courts confused in determining the punishments in such cases.
Moreover, it has also been observed that till now not a single criminal has been punished under BLSA. Many law enforcement agencies are active at the federal and provincial levels to prevent human trafficking from Pakistan. These include provincial police departments and the immigration wing of the Federal Investigation Agency or FIA. At the beginning of this year, the FIA launched a comprehensive operation against human trafficking, the results of which have been very encouraging so far. As a result of this operation, 655 human traffickers have been arrested so far, of which 14 were most wanted while 136 were commercial traffickers. The bitter truth is that increasing poverty, unemployment and lack of economic opportunities in the country is the main reason for the youth to leave their country.
In order to completely remedy human trafficking, while it is necessary to break the network of human traffickers, effective measures for the development and prosperity of the youth are also indispensable. Abundant opportunities for better employment within the country can only prevent the youth from this journey of death.
