Three scores of underage workers recovered from Port Qasim terminal

The children had been brought from interior Sindh and were forced to work as labourers.

KARACHI: As many as 60 underage workers who were working as labourers at a private terminal of Port Qasim were recovered by the police before being handed over to the Edhi Centre.

Bin Qasim police, acting on reports, conducted raids at two old and privately operated terminals in Port Qasim. They found that teenagers were being forced to work at the site as labourers.

However, when The Express Tribune contacted DSP Badar Ali Shah, he denied any raid had been conducted by the police and said that the matter was an internal issue between the Port Qasim Authority and the contractor who had brought children aged between 14 to 17 years from interior Sindh to work as labourers at the terminal.

DSP Shah added that the Port Qasim Authority did not allow the contractor to establish residential quarters for the labourers inside the facility. Therefore, the final decision was that the children would be turned over to the Edhi Centre.