The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has nabbed 6,835 persons for human trafficking during the last four years.
Giving year-wise details about the arrests, an official source on Sunday said 1642 smugglers or traffickers were arrested in 2008, 1775 in 2009, 1779 in 2010 and 1639 in 2011.
In addition, the agency also nabbed 1,842 proclaimed offenders (POs) during the period with 376 in 2008, 441 in 2009, 522 in 2010 and 503 in 2011. The official said 507 court absconders (COs) were also arrested during the last four years with year-wise details of 77 in 2008, 54 in 2009, 200 in 2010 and 176 in 2011.
The official said thanks to the steps taken by the Ministry of Interior and introducing different methods that Pakistan got upgraded from Tier-II Watch List to Tier-II in Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) published by the US State Department and maintained the same status during 2011 whereby 188 countries around the global were categorised. This report has direct impact on the US and UN financial aid.
He said the Agency was giving priority to control the human trafficking in the country and in this regard it had successfully launched Integrated Border Management System (IBMS) at Islamabad and Peshawar airports.
The other measures were installation of Edison System at major airports through Australian High Commission, creation of Immigration Intelligence Unit (IIU) in collaboration with UK, creation of Transnational Crime Unit (TCU) with collaboration of Australia. He said all these measures helped drastic reduction in the number of Deportees on Fake Documents (DFDs).
The official said traffic handled at airports during the last four years was 34.5 million with 7.8 million in 2008, 8.2 million in 2009, 8.7 million in 2010 and 9.8 million in 2011. During the period, 2114 persons were Off-loaded On Fake Documents (OFDs) with details including 572 in 2008, 669 in 2009, 504 in 2010 and 369 in 2011 while the number of Deportees on Fake Documents (DFDs-A Category) was 56 in 2008, 31 in 2009, 37 in 2010 and 15 in 2011. The number of Deportees on Fake Documents during the period in Category B was 52 in 2008, 43 in 2009, 42 in 2010 and 20 in 2011. Giving further details, the official said 15,213 persons were convicted with details including 4641 persons in 2008, 4396 in 2009, 3115 in 2010 and 2861 persons were convicted during 2011. He said Human Trafficking Information System (HUTIS) is very much beneficial since its establishment at main Anti Human Trafficking Circles (AHTCs) for entering detail of human traffickers. As per information provided by the HUTIS at FIA, Headquarters, 1793 human traffickers have been included with details. Further more, he said, Zonal Offices are also being asked to update the system and enter detail of all the agents/human traffickers.
