Twenty officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have come under scrutiny after a probe indicated their alleged involvement in clearing travel documents of the victims who drowned in the Morocco migrant boat tragedy.
The development came after the federal government launched a high-level probe into the tragic boat incident in Morocco wherein at least 44 Pakistani migrants drowned while attempting to reach Spain from West Africa earlier this month.
In a statement on Saturday, an FIA spokesperson said that the agency initiated a probe against its 20 officials over suspicions of their involvement in human smuggling. It added that the officials had allegedly cleared the victims of the ill-fated boat at airports.
The unfortunate incident occurred on January 16 when a boat carrying irregular migrants from the African nation of Mauritania to Spain capsized. 50 migrants, including 44 Pakistanis, were presumed dead.
Although, as many as 36 Pakistani citizens were rescued, the rest still remain missing which, as per a report from the Pakistani Embassy, should be presumed dead.
The ill-fated boat departed from Mauritania on January 2 with 86 migrants on board. Moroccan authorities reported that 66 of the passengers were Pakistani nationals and noted that it had rescued 36 people after the accident.
The suspected FIA officials include eight from Faisalabad airport and six each from Karachi and Lahore airports. The agency also revealed that Mauritania was the “third and new route” for human smuggling after Turkey and Libya.
Separately, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar also issued instructions for coordination of the government’s response and asked the ministries of foreign affairs and interior to ensure the provision of efficient and timely assistance to the Pakistani victims of Moroccan boat tragedy.
Dar chaired a meeting on issues relating to 3rd country relocations of Afghan nationals, APP reported citing press release.
The meeting also reviewed in detail the boat tragedy off the coast of Morocco leading to several deaths. The secretaries of the ministries of foreign affairs, interior and other officials attended the meeting.
Three human smugglers nabbed
In a major development today, the FIA arrested two alleged human smugglers including a woman and her son from Gujrat, whereas, another suspected trafficker was taken into custody from Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Bhimber area.
The sources closer to the FIA said that the accused woman had confessed to being involved in human smuggling along with her three sons. One of her sons, Khawar, had taken 10 people to Senegal with him following his previous visit to the African country in April 2024.
They revealed that the suspect’s son Hasan was residing in Italy while her another son was absconding since the boat tragedy. The agency had collected details from bank account and mobile phone after arresting the woman from Gujrat’s village of Jaurah a day ago.
Safe houses in Mauritania
The human trafficking gang had established itself in March 2024 by constructing safe houses and started transporting people to Mauritania in June last year. The traffickers used to carry people to Senegal via air travel to take them to Mauritania via land routes, according to the FIA.
According to the federal agency, several Pakistanis were still present in those safe houses in Mauritania who wanted to reach Spain via Morocco.
The FIA claimed that the prime suspect of last month’s Greek boat capsizing incident, Qamaruz Zaman, was also present in Mauritania along with several other traffickers who fled from different countries to the northwest African country after a similar incident that took place in June 2023.
The human traffickers also included Afzal Jajja who ran away from Libya following the horrific boat capsizing near Greece.
It is pertinent to mention here that more than 80 Pakistanis drowned after boats capsized near Greece on the night between December 13 and 14, 2024.
