Human trafficking attempt foiled

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Immigration foiled an alleged attempt by four passengers to use Saudi Arabia as a transit point for illegal migration to Europe at the New Islamabad International Airport.

The passengers, including a woman, were offloaded and handed over to the FIA's Anti-Human Trafficking Circle in Islamabad for further investigation.

According to FIA officials, the four passengers were travelling to Saudi Arabia on Umrah visas when they were subjected to secondary profiling by immigration staff. A detailed examination of their travel documents raised suspicions after it emerged that one of the passengers had previously been deported from Türkiye for illegal entry.

During the inspection, officials also recovered Azerbaijan visit visas from two of the passengers, further strengthening suspicions of an attempted illegal migration.

A forensic examination of the passengers' mobile phones revealed that two of them planned to accompany their mother to Saudi Arabia under the pretext of performing Umrah. They allegedly intended to send her back to Pakistan while they continued their journey illegally towards Europe.

Chat records recovered from the phones indicated that the suspects planned to reach Europe via the Baku-Serbia route and had been in regular contact with agents .