Arm of slave trade

People trafficking, smuggling is arm of the slave trade, illegal everywhere in the world, prohibitions are worldwide

Let there be no misunderstanding, people trafficking and smuggling is no less than an active arm of the slave trade. It is illegal everywhere in the world and prohibitions against it are widely flouted, as the urge to find fortune elsewhere burns bright in many in Pakistan. The problem is especially prevalent in Gujranwala. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has a national responsibility for catching the traffickers but a source within the FIA says that there is no human smuggling convict in any of the four district jails and moreover has not been one for the last four months — which stinks of rotten fish.

It is not as if the traffickers operate in the shadows, they are well-enough known, some of them running operations from Iran and Turkey. Undeniably there are traffickers awaiting trial, several dozens of them but they are not behind bars for long as they often do deals with complainants with up to 80% of traffickers buying their freedom by this route. If they do ever get before the judges are fined paltry amounts — pointing a finger at a judiciary that may be complicit in the illegal trade. Now the FIA has been spurred into unwilling action after the death of 20 young people in the Turbat area of Balochistan. Whether the traffickers will in this dreadful case ever be prosecuted is a moot point.

The urge to reach Europe is for some a desperate imperative, spurred by the success of those that have made a success of living and working elsewhere and advertised that success by the building of palatial residences ‘back home.’ Those that heed the call are mostly unskilled and poorly educated men. They will run up debt to pay the traffickers and many find that their dreams are in fact mirages that disappear like smoke. Many go into even greater debt as they are paid slave wages and the cost of living exceeds their meagre income. The people smugglers could be defeated were it not for the corruption that sustains them.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2017.

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