By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has launched an inquiry into 20 of its officials suspected of involvement in human smuggling, following a migrant boat tragedy off Morocco’s coast that killed at least 44 Pakistanis.
“We have initiated an investigation against 20 FIA officials who are suspected of clearing travel documents of the victims,” an FIA spokesperson said.
The officials, including eight from Faisalabad airport, six from Karachi airport, and six from Lahore airport, are being probed for allegedly issuing fake documents to the migrants ad also for human trafficking.
A boat carrying illegal migrants from Mauritania to Spain capsized on Jan. 16, resulting in the presumed deaths of 50 migrants, including 44 Pakistanis. Thirty-six Pakistanis were rescued, while many remain missing, feared dead.
The boat capsized off the coast of the disputed region of Western Sahara and several of the survivors, which included some Pakistanis, were taken to a camp near the port of Dakhl.
The boat, which departed from Mauritania on Jan. 2, had 86 migrants on board, 66 of whom were Pakistani nationals.
In a separate development, the FIA arrested two alleged human smugglers, a woman and her son, from Gujrat, and another suspected trafficker from Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Bhimber area.
“We have arrested three human smugglers, including a woman and her son, who were involved in sending migrants to Morocco and other countries,” the FIA spokesperson said. The accused woman confessed to involvement in human smuggling along with her three sons, the spokesman added.
The federal government has launched a high-level probe into the incident.
Last year more than 350 Pakistanis lost their lives when an overcrowded boat carrying hundreds of illegal migrants sank en route to Greece from Tobruk, Libya.
According to Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights, Pakistan, “in the year 2023 alone over 6,000 Pakistanis undertook illegal journeys to reach European shores” — though some estimates put the number significantly higher. A report released by the commission in May of this year said most of the illegal migrants were motivated by economic concerns.
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