Booted out: Iran expels 170 as human trafficking goes unchecked

QUETTA: The Iranian security officials on Sunday handed over 170 Pakistanis to the local administration of Chagai district at Taftan border.

The detained Pakistanis, mostly from Punjab, had entered Iran without valid travel documents, security officials said. The Balochistan-Iran-Turkey-Greece route is being used by the human smugglers with links in the local administration for smuggling people to Europe, officials said.

A disgruntled officer posted in the border town confided that it has become a routine affair that Pakistani officials ignore the insults the Iranian border security guards hurl while handing over the prisoners at the time of deportation.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2016.