PHOTO: AFP
Most of the over 2,000 Pakistani citizens deported from Gulf countries in 2014 were manipulated by human traffickers owing to their poor economic background, said Federal Investigation Agency's Sindh director Shahid Hayat on Thursday.
He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of a support centre for returning migrants established in collaboration with the Australian government and International Organization for Migration (IOM) at the Karachi port.
The centre, located at the FIA immigration post, aims to provide reception and support services to migrants retuning from other countries through sea and to identify victims of trafficking among them.
Hayat said in recent years, around 1,000 human traffickers were apprehended as the interior ministry launched a campaign against them. However, he lamented that issues persisted in properly prosecuting them.
Speaking at the event, Australian High Commissioner Margaret Adamson said her government extended financial support for the project to ‘help address this global issue’.
It is a collaboration of Pakistani, Australian governments and international agencies to deal with the illegal migrants' crises and to help its victims, she maintained.
IOM Pakistan chief of mission Davide Terzi stressed the importance Pakistan's expat community, quoting around $17 billion remittances sent by them in the last fiscal year.
According to IOM, Pakistan has a diaspora of around eight million people while the outflow is continuing with many using illegal means to settle abroad. As Pakistan faces an unprecedented inflow of deported citizens, the centre has been established to support trafficking victims.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 26th, 2016.
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