LAHORE: Lack of coordination between the Ministry of Interior (MoI) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has ‘helped’ over a dozen Most Wanted Human Traffickers (MWTs) to travel hassle-free from and to Pakistan during the recent past, revealed a report by a private media outlet.
Around 27 MWTs, who have a travel history to and from Pakistan, couldn’t be captured because of lack of coordination on the part of the interior ministry and FIA. The MoI controls the Exit Control List (ECL) and Watch List and the process of putting names on these lists has been made very tough for the last couple of years.
Integrated Border Management System (IBMS), which had replaced Personal Identification Secure Comparison & Evaluation System (PISCES) in 2008, was deployed at various airports in early 2011, including Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA), Islamabad, on Feb 15, 2011, Allama Iqbal International Airport (AIIAP), Lahore, on July 11, 2012, Jinnah International Airport (JIAP), Karachi, on April 10, 2012, and Bacha Khan International Airport, Peshawar on Nov 18, 2011.
IBMS is an indigenous system developed by Nadra and has been deployed on 20 sites out of 26, including FIA headquarters entry/exit points.
Since 2014, Pakistan has been on the Tier-2 Watch List which means it does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Department of State of the United States every year ranks each country according to its efforts in dealing with the human trafficking issue.
Quite recently, around 20 innocent people lost their lives while on their way to Europe through land routes via Iran, Turkey and Greece, etc.
In the entire year of 2017, FIA could arrest only 11 out of 92 MWTs. The arrest ratio of the FIA stood at 11.95 percent during the corresponding year. Still, 81 MWTs are at large and out of those numbers, 27 MWTs managed to travel without any trouble after they were booked by the FIA in human trafficking.
Among the MWTs whose travel details are available, used four major airports in the country to travel, including Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad and Peshawar. Out of 92 MWTs, 10 were booked after they left the country but seemingly no effort was made to bring them back.
