Senate panel seeks details of 400 human trafficking cases

Calls for establishing contact with Bosnian govt over migrants

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Friday sought details of human trafficking cases with the federal investigation and immigration body apart from directing to launch an awareness drive about the hundreds of headhunters who send locals to work abroad. It further directed to establish contact with the Bosnian government regarding hundreds of Pakistanis in a migrant camp in the new ‘road to Europe’.

This was directed during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development which met on Friday. The meeting was chaired by Senator Hillalur Rehman, an independent from the erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (Fata).

The committee was of the view that mass awareness campaigns must be carried out to ensure that all immigrants are aware of their due right.

While taking up the issue of human trafficking, the Senate Committee on Overseas Pakistanis directed the FIA to provide details of the 400 referred cases.

It further directed that the details must be submitted by Monday and that the relevant officer must sit together with FIA’s director-general or the additional director general to formulate a mechanism for this purpose.

During the meeting, the foreign ministry gave a detailed briefing on the state of Pakistanis imprisoned in the Jungle Migrants Camp at Vuejak site in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The committee was told that the total number of migrants in this camp is 10,000, of which 4,000 are Pakistanis. Further, the committee was told that most of these migrants do not wish to return to their homeland.

However, lawmakers were told that the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) ensures that the return of any migrant who wishes to do so voluntarily.

The committee directed the foreign ministry to contact the Bosnian Embassy and through which the Bosnian government and check what can be done to bring back all the Pakistanis who do wish to return.

Senator Rehman sought a telephonic update on the matter by Tuesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2019.