FIA releases directory of 100 most wanted human traffickers

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Friday issued the ‘Red Book’ of proclaimed offenders wanted in human trafficking cases.

The Agency has declared 100 offenders in the Red Book as most wanted and proclaimed offenders. The list also included five most wanted female criminals.

The investigation agency has named 43 proclaimed offenders wanted in human smuggling offense from Punjab.

The names of three human traffickers added in last year’s list of 28 proclaimed offenders are from Islamabad, the agency said.

The red book also carrying 12 names of human smugglers from Sindh and two from Balochistan, FIA sources said.

In the year 2018, the list of traffickers has comprised 93 most wanted smugglers and only 19 from them were arrested, the FIA disclosed.

It is pertinent to mention here that in a recently held seminar over the issue it was disclosed that women and girls were disproportionately impacted by human trafficking problem, and according to global estimates women and girls constituted up to 80 per cent of people trafficked globally and more than 60 percent of those trafficked belonged to Asia.

The seminar titled “Together to combat trafficking of women and girls” was organised by the UN Women Pakistan, in collaboration with National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW).

A representative of the FIA informed the participants that Pakistani women were not only being trafficked from poverty-stricken areas of southern Punjab and Balochistan, but also from major cities such as Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad.

He said that recently some young Pakistani women were also trafficked to China on the pretext of marriage.