ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has launched a nationwide crackdown on a human trafficking mafia for smuggling married and single women to the Gulf countries through fraudulent means, officials said.
Passenger scrutiny has been significantly tightened at the international airports across Pakistan following the crackdown.
The policy shift follows a recent operation at the Multan International Airport, where the FIA Immigration Wing foiled an attempt to traffic a local woman to Oman, exposing an organised international human trafficking network in the process. Several individuals, including the victim and agents involved in the scam, have been taken into custody.
The passenger, identified as Jabrana Ahmed of Hafizabad, was offloaded from Flight G9559 while attempting to board a flight to Oman on a family joining visa.
Initial questioning by the immigration officers revealed severe discrepancies between Jabrana’s statements and her official travel documents.
Investigators discovered that human trafficking agents had fraudulently secured an Omani visa for Jabrana by falsely documenting her as the wife of a man named Raheel Sarwar.
Further inquiry established that the woman was already married to another individual in Pakistan and had no husband residing in Oman, confirming that the visa had been obtained through deception.
The trafficking network lured Jabrana by promising a lucrative job abroad, with the ultimate intention of exploiting and trafficking her upon her arrival in the Gulf state.
The kingpin of the syndicate and their accomplices run the network directly from Oman. Investigators have since expanded the scope of their inquiry to identify and apprehend all domestic and international operatives tied to the ring.
Following her offloading, Jabrana was transferred to the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Circle Multan for further legal processing and to assist investigators in identifying the specific agents responsible for her recruitment.
Director FIA Multan Zone Ata-ur-Rehman has praised the immigration team for successfully intercepting the passenger and preventing the trafficking attempt.
He urged Pakistanis seeking overseas employment to verify their travel documents and utilise only legal channels and report visa fraud directly to the FIA.
