83 passengers caught travelling on forged documents in 8 months

KARACHI:

The FIA Immigration has released the performance report of Karachi Airport for the first eight months of the current year.

According to the FIA spokesperson, immigration authorities completed the immigration process for 2.79 million passengers of 16,700 flights over the past eight months. During the said period, 83 passengers were offloaded and arrested for trying to travel on fake or tampered travel documents, with 55 held for holding fake visas and 28 for holding fake passports.

Moreover, several suspects wanted in serious crimes were also arrested based on the stop list provided by various agencies.

Additionally, the process of modernisation and improvement at Karachi Airport is ongoing. By utiliding modern technology, arrival and departure counters have been given direct access to Interpol's database.

This year, with the support of ICMPD, a second-line office equipped with advanced forensic and IT tools has been established. This office will assist in the verification of visas and passports. Special training sessions have been organised for immigration officers to enhance their skills in checking the travel documents. A QR code system has also been introduced to gather real-time feedback and share experiences from passengers.

Furthermore, a new system to verify visas has also been successfully implemented. Immigration facilitation officers have been specifically assigned to assist passengers.

The Director of Karachi Zone has praised the performance of FIA Immigration at Karachi Airport, emphasising the need to ensure the provision of excellent immigration services.