…human smuggling and trafficking had become the third largest crime agency in the world – DIG Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zaibullah Khan
ISLAMABAD: United States embassy Islamabad in collaborating with Sustainable Social Development Organization(SSDO) concluded a two-day International conference on countering Trafficking in Persons (TIP) in Pakistan.
The theme of the conference was to strengthen institutional capacity to reduce trafficking in persons and also help victims get needed support.
Besides of 200 US alumni, Lawyers, journalists, police and FIA officials, civil society, NGOs workers,politicians,students,US and Pakistan anti human trafficking experts and scholars, parliamentarians, academia and officials attended the conference.
DIG investigation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zaibullah Khan, director FIA muhammad Alam Shinwari, DIG Nida Chatta, senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed,Pakistan People party seasoned politician and deputy speaker Shehla Raza, Pir Alama Muhammad Zubair Abid, Director FIA Humayun Sindo and US head of the mission Andrew Schofer were the key speakers who shed light over the root causes and and reasons of the human trafficking.
Chief guest was the US ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome. At his opening remarks Donald Blome said human trafficking erodes the rule of law and the safety of various communities. He said the security of the borders and the strength the country’s economy. Blome said when they make efforts together across government, business and civil society they could achieve the goals of combating human trafficking and could create a fairer and more equitable world.
Shehla Raza acknowledged the efforts of the US government in supporting anti-trafficking efforts in Pakistan.
She also thanked sustainable social development organization and the Pakistan-US Alumni Network (PUAN) for their work in Pakistan .
Shehla Raza said Pakistan’s struggling for eliminating human smuggling had become a disaster for Pakistan. She said the numbers of human trafficking case were gradually increasing.
She urged the relevent authorities and civil society to cooperate with the government so that could they could cop with the issue effectively. She said journaists,ulemas and givernment must join hands for this national cause.Shehla Raza said various segmemt of life not take interest to overcome from the human smuggling menace.
Federally Investigation Authority(FIA) director Muhammad Alam Shinwari said that Pakistan worked alot on curbing the trafficking in person. He said more than 200 FIRs registered across Pakistan in 2022 regarding TIP. He said they need to develop hot line so that they could reach to the TIP case in Pakistan quickly. He suggested to establish dash borad online which could be reached by those who want to follow the case.
DIG Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zaibullah Khan said human smuggling and trafficking had become the third largest crime agency in the world. He said there was some flaws not only in police and other law enforcing agencies but they had to work more on the prosecution process that would also benefit the victims.
Zaibullah Khan said it was the FIA domain dealing the human smuggling but after the new law passed recently the whole Pakistan’s police were given authority to coordinate with law enforcing agence to root out the inhuman crime. He said bonded labours and slavery were also major issues in some parts of Pakistan. He said ploice need trainings and capacity building specifically on human trafficking so that they could deal the cases accurately.
Zaibullah Khan said human smuggling subject was inducted in police curriculum to be taught from next year. He said it was also suggested to make the human trafficking topic in primary level curriculum.
SSP Nida Chatta of Sindh police said in some cases, legal gauedians due to extrime poverty had put their children in forced labourer and sexual activities. She said more than four hundreds cases of TIP registered in the past few months in Sindh.
Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed also shared his view and recommendations. He said in a single day more than 100 people were being smuggled indigenously and went into the hands of human smugglers who transport them abroad. He said the currupt system in Pakistan was responsible for human smuggling that had been facilitating traffickers to misuse youth and children for to earn money. He said an effective mechanism could help improve to cop with human trafficking.
Mushahid Hussain Sayed claimed that Daesh(ISIS)pay dollars 300 to each child when join their ranks in Afghanistan.
Terresa Chang of US embassay said human trafficking was not the issue in Pakistan.She said it was a global phenomena that had to be addressed collectively.She said they had to work on protection and prosecution of the cvictims so that they could fight humam smuggling.
