Immigration
KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has issued a directive to its deputy directors of immigration across Pakistan to implement heightened vigilance when clearing passengers for international flights.
This move is aimed at curbing the increasing issue of human trafficking, a problem that has become rampant in the country. The FIA’s new guidelines focus particularly on first-time foreign passengers, especially those between the ages of 15 and 40, who are traveling from nine major cities.
Officials have been specifically instructed to apply stricter screening measures for passengers traveling on specific airlines, including Ethiopian Airlines, in an effort to prevent the illegal movement of people.
According to the advisory, the FIA has put in place a more comprehensive system for profiling passengers flying to a number of countries, including Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Senegal, Kenya, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Mauritania, Iraq, Turkiye, Qatar, Kuwait, and Kyrgyzstan.
These nations have been identified as common transit points for Pakistanis attempting to illegally migrate to Europe.
The directive follows an analysis of the Immigration and Border Management System (IBMS) database, which reviewed the movement of passengers traveling on visit, tourism, religious, or educational visas between July and December.
The new orders specifically target certain areas in Pakistan, including Mandi Bahauddin, Gujarat, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Bhimber, Jhelum, Toba Tek Singh, Hafizabad, and Sheikhupura.
Immigration officials have been instructed to carefully monitor and profile passengers from these regions. In particular, all documents—including return tickets and hotel bookings—of passengers bound for the identified destinations must undergo thorough scrutiny.
Special attention should be paid to visit or tourist visas, and officers are expected to conduct detailed interviews to probe into the financial arrangements and the real purpose behind the travel of suspicious passengers.
The FIA has also emphasized the importance of maintaining a detailed record of all such cases and ensuring that any suspicious activity is reported promptly.
Sources have highlighted that, for the past two decades, there has been a lack of a clear advisory policy at Pakistan’s airports, which has led to hesitancy among officials when it comes to offloading passengers suspected of being involved in human trafficking. With the new directive, the FIA aims to establish stricter enforcement to prevent the illegal exploitation of vulnerable individuals.
