The illegal tide of migrants

FIA has slowly started plugging the gaps through which would-be migrants often manage to slip into European countries

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has slowly started plugging the gaps through which would-be migrants from Pakistan often manage to slip into European countries after dangerous, winding trips through Iran and Turkey. By deploying two senior officials in Turkey and tasking them with opening an FIA office there — and another two more in Iran and Greece in the coming few months — the authorities are hoping to discourage the illegal influx of Pakistani migrants into these confluence points and onwards into Europe. Illegal migrants from other countries also treat Turkey as a transit route, as they use Iran and Greece.

Such steps may prove quite handy especially in the wake of a US threat to cut civilian assistance in case sufficiently stringent measures are not taken against human trafficking. We would earn considerable international goodwill as well. Much would depend, however, on the Foreign Office though — because its wider cooperation could ensure that the FIA controls abroad seamlessly fall into place. The proposed deployment of FIA representatives in those three countries forced itself on to the public agenda following a migrant boat tragedy off the Libyan coast in which several Pakistanis lost their lives in January. For the time being, however, the move will facilitate the departure and exit of would-be migrants from Turkey, Iran and Greece. What it needs to evolve is a robust programme to check such illegal movement of people at the local and international levels.

Just last month the FIA admitted before a parliamentary panel it didn’t have the wherewithal or the capacity to halt the menace of human trafficking in the country. As much as the acknowledgment was rare, it was also important because it has or will in time become a trigger for eventual solutions. The problem is that the FIA has no jurisdictional authority in the provinces; instead it is preoccupied with human smuggling and trafficking carried outside of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2018.

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