Islamabad: Nearly 29,000 Pakistani attempting to enter Europe were intercepted by Iran and handed over to Pakistani authorities in 2016, according to a senior Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official quoted in local media reports.
FIA Deputy Director Jawad Khan said every year thousands of Pakistanis make abortive attempts to enter Greece via Iran and Turkey for better working opportunities. Most of them are arrested in Iran and Turkey and sent back.
That was a significant rise from 2014, when Iran had sent back 5,218 illegal Pakistani immigrants, the official said, pointing out that human traffickers used both frequented and unfrequented routes along the 900-km-long Pakistan-Iran border to sneak into Iran via Balochistan.
In 2005, Pakistan had established an inter-agency task force to tackle human trafficking.
“We have FIA personnel working at the Pakistan-Iran border crossing in Taftan and the rest of the border is not properly manned,” the FIA official said while explaining the geographical problems faced in curbing human trafficking.
