Muhammad Ali
It seems human trafficking is escalating in Balochistan. Smugglers have been using land routes of Mand and Taftan, without being challenged by the authorities concerned. People involved in this unlawful business used to deceive unemployed men by promising them employment opportunities in Iran and Turkey on payment of a considerable amount of cash. Mostly the victims belong to Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Wazirabad and Jhelum. Although their destination is said to be Greece via Iran and Turkey, they rarely reach it.
Over 10,000 people try to cross the border illegally every month in the hope of a golden future; and many die in the process. Thousands of these people try to cross the border into Iran from where they want to go to Turkey and then onto mainland Europe. These poor people are, however, just the commodity in this smuggling business. The smugglers receive Rs 500,000 from each of these innocent men and they are then thrown into this world where their lives are totally at risk. The chances of their return are nearly zero.
Last year in 2016, more than 10,000 people crossed Pak-Iran border and were caught in Iran or Turkey and then deported back to Pakistan. But many of these pay the small fine they have to pay at Taftan border and contact the agents again. The security agencies arrested 1500 people only during the months of October and November of the current year.
These people who risk everything from life to belongings in order to cross into Europe and most of the times end up losing both in the process. The security forces are getting 20 to 25 dead bodies each year from the Iran and Turkey borders. These unclaimed bodies lying at the borders are telling a horrific story of the consequences of human smuggling. Meanwhile, 5% of these people go missing every month too.
On Nov 15, Levis found bullet riddled bodies of 15 men who were killed by Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) headed by Allah Nazar Baloch were shifted to Lahore for their funeral. Buleda is a mountainous region six hundred km south of Quetta, from where human traffickers compel people to sneak into Iran in bid to enter Europe through Turkey. The victims had been killed in the Buleda Gorak area of District Kech. They belonged to Mandi Bahauddin, Sialkot and other parts of Punjab. Balochistan Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti accompanied their bodies to Lahore. The funeral prayers of the victims had been offered earlier in the day in Turbat amid tight security.
Chief Minister Balochistan Nawab Sanaullah Zehri chaired high level meeting in which Lt-Gen Asim Bajwa and other senior officers attended, during which the authorities decided to take stern action against those involved in the brutal killing. A senior administration officer who requested anonymity said that the 15 had been killed while trying to sneak into Iran through unfrequented routes. The victims had been trying to enter Iran illegally and then proceed to Turkey to enter Greece for the sake of employment.
In response to terrorist activities in Balochistan, security forces conducted an operation against insurgents in which Yonus Taukali one of the top eight commander of the banned outfit BLF involved in murdering of 15 people in Turbat had been killed.
Moreover, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemning the act and said that the elements that killed the innocent people deserved no leniency and vowed that those involved in human-trafficking would be taken to task. He said that Punjab Police would eliminate such fake travel agents in partnership with the FIA and both Punjab and federal governments would collectively curb this menace. Following the incident, during crack down on human traffickers, four suspected human smuggling agents have been arrested from Quetta, Sialkot and Gujrawala on identification by families of victims.
The Chief Justice Supreme Court took a suomoto notice of killing and ordered the IG Police Balochistan and DG FIA to submit a report within three days with regard to the steps taken by security forces in the province to curb such incidents in future.
Local representatives of these areas should make the people aware of the negative effects of this unlawful act, which is ruining the reputation of their families as well as of the whole nation. The government should strive to create more job opportunities to make people turn away from illegal activities. The government should pass an anti-trafficking law that prohibits and penalizes all forms of human trafficking and prescribes sufficiently stringent penalties. The government should provide trainings to government officials that clearly distinguish between human trafficking and human smuggling; strengthen the capacity of provincial governments to address human trafficking, including bonded labor, through training, awareness raising, funding, and encouraging the creation of coordination taskforces and the adoption of provincial-level anti-trafficking action plans; improve efforts to collect, analyze, and accurately report anti-trafficking data, distinct from data on smuggling; and accede to the UN TIP Protocol.
