ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Assembly has for the first time passed a law designed to tackle human trafficking to European and other countries.
Moving the bill to a vote in the National Assembly, Secretary for Interior Dr. Muhammad Afzal Khan Dhandla said the law would help “prevent and combat the smuggling of migrants,” with the help of national and international authorities.
He said that since human trafficking involves multiple international jurisdictions, it is important for agencies within Pakistan and in other countries to cooperate in fighting the crime.
“The Federal Investigation Agency [FIA] has been empowered through this law to cooperate with relevant authorities in other countries of origin, transit and destination of smuggled migrants,” said Dhandla. “The FIA will make reciprocal arrangements after due administrative process to share, request and receive information relating to the smuggling of migrants.”
Under the law, passed on April 12, the traffickers and those who help them will face a jail term of up to 14 years and a fine of up to two million rupees ($17,000).
Dhandla said human trafficking is a major issue for Pakistan, and the new law would help authorities tackle it effectively.
The smuggling and trafficking of humans is said to be the third-most lucrative source of organized-crime revenue after weapons and drugs, amounting to more than $32 billion a year.
“Pakistani nationals are among the 10 most-detected nationalities that attempt irregular migration to the European Union and Australia,” according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
In December last year, an FIA report to Pakistan’s Supreme Court revealed that 6,767 Pakistanis entered European countries illegally through Iran in 2017 alone. In the same time, 27,749 were deported: 18,810 from Iran, 4,401 from Turkey and 4,538 from EU countries.
The report said that the most common overland route for illegal migration was from Pakistan to Iran, then on to Turkey and Greece.
“The illegal migrants leave Pakistan via unmanned or unofficial border crossings located along unfrequented routes into Iran,” it explained.
Supreme Court Barrister Mohammed Iqbal Duggal said the law makes the human smuggling a court-recognized, non-bailable and non-compoundable offense, as deterrent to criminals.
“Human smuggling is not only a human-rights violation but also gives Pakistan a bad name,” he said.
He also suggested the government should arrange specialist training for FIA officials and magistrates tasked with dealing with the offense, to ensure effective implementation of the law.
Senior advocate Sharafat Ali, who deals with human-rights and human-trafficking issues, said the law would help strengthen the work of the Ministry of Interior and related departments, such as the FIA, but that “the real issue remains its implementation in letter and spirit.”
He said the government must sign bilateral and multilateral treaties with other countries, especially in the European Union, where the majority of Pakistani illegal migrants end up, to develop a mechanism to discourage the practice.
“Pakistan alone cannot fight it … it must seek international cooperation and this law empowers the government to do so,” said Ali.
Earlier in the day Reuters, quoting anonymous sources in the Trump administration, reported that the United States could cut civilian aid worth tens of millions of dollars this year to Pakistan if the country failed to do enough to combat human trafficking.
Pakistan has been on the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report’s “tier-2 watch-list” for four years and unless it is upgraded, it will drop to the third tier, the lowest level, alongside Iran, North Korea and Syria, among others.
“The government may not be able to eliminate it completely but it can reduce this inhuman business significantly by ensuring full implementation of the law,” said Duggal.