Islamabad:
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has released the 13th edition of its “Red Book” document on 165 pages, providing details of most-post-asked human smugglers.
Interestingly, the red book also shows seven female traffickers among the most sought after: Four from the Islamabad zone, two from Lahore and one from Gujranwala.
According to the document, the FIA is currently looking for 143 human smugglers wanted in different cases of human smuggling and trade. Cases against these traffickers have been registered in FIA’s Anti-Human trade in circles across the country. Zone-Vis, 70 is in demand in Gujranwala, 25 in Islamabad, 14 in Lahore, 13 in Faisalabad, 10 in Karachi, 6 in Kohat, 3 in Multan and 1 each in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
According to FIA, 51 of the most sought -after smugglers named in 2023 Red Book have been arrested so far. A special crash is underway to understand the remaining individuals with dedicated raiding team formed for this purpose.
Officials confirmed that the national identity cards and passports for these most sought after human smugglers have been blacklisted, while red messages have been issued for those who have fled abroad.
Special anti-human smuggling cell teams have been formed across the country to carry out a crash, while red messages have also been issued for the arrest of those hiding abroad.
“This significant endeavor has been orchestrated by the FIA. The Anti-Human Smuggling Directorate, which is stationed by FIA HQ, dedicated significant efforts to gather data from various anti-human trade in FIA circles that carefully present it in book form, says it.
It said over the years that the federal government, along with provincial governments, has taken a number of measures to combat the thorough question of migrant smuggling and trade in persons.
These efforts include a five-year national action plan, the creation of the prevention of smuggling of the migrant law 2018 and the prevention of trade in persons in the law 2018 together with the formulation of associated rules.
The activation of trading in persons (TIP) committees at national, provincial and district levels together with the Constitution of an Inter -Agency’s Taskforce (IATF) has been done to strengthen prosecution, protect victims and care for cooperation.
It said the FIA, in collaboration with international partners and civil society organizations, has begun a robust program aimed at improving the capacity building of law enforcement and relevant departments.
“This initiative includes the initiation of dialogues and spearheads for public consciousness campaigns. The creation of the data collection and analysis wing as well as a dedicated research unit in FIA’s anti-human smuggling (AHS) Directorate demonstrates their commitment,” added it.
