20 FIA officials under investigation over Morocco migrant boat tragedy
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A migrant boat in Mediterranean waters east of Cape Greco in southeastern Cyprus. — AFP/File
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Twenty Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials have come under scrutiny following an investigation into their alleged involvement in laundering the travel documents of victims of the Moroccan migrant boat disaster.
The development comes after the federal government launched a high-level investigation into the tragic boat incident in Morocco in which at least 44 Pakistani migrants drowned while trying to reach Spain from West Africa earlier this month. .
In a statement on Saturday, an FIA spokesperson said the agency had launched an investigation against 20 of its officials suspected of involvement in human trafficking. It added that authorities had reportedly cleared victims of the ill-fated boat at airports.
The tragic incident took place on January 16 when a boat carrying illegal immigrants from the African country of Mauritania to Spain capsized. 50 migrants including 44 Pakistanis are feared dead.
Although, 36 Pakistani nationals were rescued, the rest are still missing and should be presumed dead, according to a report by the Pakistani embassy.
The ill-fated boat left Mauritania on January 2 with 86 migrants on board. Moroccan officials said 66 of the passengers were Pakistani nationals and said it had rescued 36 people after the crash.
The suspected officials of FIA include eight persons from Faisalabad Airport and six persons each from Karachi and Lahore Airports. The agency also revealed that Mauritania is the “third and new route” for human trafficking, after Turkey and Libya.
In addition, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar also issued instructions to coordinate the government’s response and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Interior to ensure effective and timely relief to the Pakistani victims of the Moroccan boat tragedy.
APP reported in a press release that Dar chaired a meeting on the transfer of Afghan nationals to third countries.
The meeting also took a detailed look at the boat accident off the coast of Morocco, which resulted in several deaths. The meeting was attended by Foreign Ministry, Home Secretaries and other officials.
Three human traffickers arrested
In a major development today, the FIA arrested two alleged human traffickers, including a woman and her son, from Gujarat, while another suspected trafficker was detained from Bhimbar in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Sources close to FIA said that the accused woman has confessed to being involved in human trafficking along with her three sons. One of his sons, Khawar, took 10 people with him to Senegal after his previous visit to the African country in April 2024.
He revealed that the accused’s son Hasan was staying in Italy while his other son is absconding after the boat tragedy. The agency had collected details from the bank account and mobile phone after arresting the woman from Jodha village in Gujarat a day ago.
A safe house in Mauritania
The human trafficking gang established itself in March 2024 by building safe houses and began transporting people to Mauritania in June last year. According to the FIA, people smugglers used to fly people to Senegal to take them to Mauritania by land routes.
According to the federal agency, there were still many Pakistanis in these safe houses in Mauritania who wanted to reach Spain via Morocco.
The FIA claimed that Qamar Al-Zaman, the main suspect in last month’s Greek boat capsizing incident, was also present in Mauritania along with several other smugglers who fled from different countries after a similar incident in June 2023 to the northwest. They went to African countries.
Among the human traffickers was Afzal Jaja, who fled Libya after his boat capsized near Greece.
It should be noted that more than 80 Pakistanis drowned in the night between 13 and 14 December 2024 after the boats overturned near Greece.
