Amid reports of arbitrary offloading of passengers traveling abroad, a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official clarified Thursday that people were only offloaded or denied boarding if they did not have valid documents or if authorities suspected them of working with migrant smugglers.
In recent months, numerous incidents have been reported of travelers being discharged of flights at various airports, despite possessing valid travel documents. The actions occurred after a take strong action on migrant smuggling after last year Boat tragedy in Greece which claimed several Pakistani lives. Earlier this month, FIA Director General Riffat Mukhtar acknowledged that incidents of people being unloaded had been reported at Lahore and Karachi airports, and that investigations were underway.
In a video statement shared today, FIA Lahore Zone Director Captain (retd) Muhammad Ali Zia addressed the recent issue of “misleading AI-generated videos and false information circulating on social media regarding alleged dumping incidents at airports”.
“All these rumors have no connection with reality,” Zia said, referring to reports of people being fired “for no reason.”
However, the FIA official noted that many people “are deceived in some way by various human traffickers.”
Zia detailed that FIA immigration officials at airports check the travel documents of “all those people and profile them,” stating that no one who goes abroad for a valid purpose is detained.
“All those who are denied entry abroad are denied for not having valid documents, or for having permits or visas where the declared companies do not exist, and we suspect that human traffickers are trapping them and taking them abroad.”
“We have seen cases where people are deceived by these human traffickers and change their routes in the middle of traffic, or carry with them an accomplice in the form of their mother or sister, through whom they can leave here with the [safeguard] of an Umrah [visa]”said Zia.
He added that in the past there were cases where such people were deported from other countries, after which the FIA Anti-Human Trafficking Cell registers a case, conducts an investigation and “such human traffickers are arrested.”
He urged the public not to be fooled by migrant smugglers. The FIA official said those networks were portraying the issue negatively to “create unrest” and secure financial gains for themselves.
He recalled incidents of shipwrecks in Mauritania and Greece and said innocent people were shown “dreams of Europe” and smuggled out of Pakistan through dunky (illegal land routes) or transiting other countries, only to be pressured to hand over exorbitant amounts of cash or even lose their lives.
“Not only is Pakistan’s name being maligned internationally and the value of our green passport diminished, but many countries have also created difficulties for us in obtaining visas,” the FIA director in Lahore said.
Zia assured the public that immigration personnel will provide valid documents to all those traveling abroad for legitimate reasons.
The FIA’s Facebook post said that “such fabricated content aims to mislead the public and undermine institutional credibility,” and urged citizens to only trust verified information from official FIA platforms.
Earlier this week, BBC Urdu reported that he spoke to some of the people disembarked, including a 25-year-old man from Hyderabad who had obtained a work visa for Saudi Arabia.
Another person, aged 35, hailing from Sargodha in Punjab, was prevented from traveling to Saudi Arabia from Karachi, and was later also barred from traveling to Dubai from Lahore for work purposes.
A resident of Jhang in Punjab said BBC Urdu He was unloaded from Karachi when officials asked him why he was using that airport instead of the nearby one in Lahore, the reason he said it was a cheaper ticket.
Earlier this week it emerged that several genuine businessmen and tourists protested strongly against the “harsh policy” of dismissing even those on business or tourism trips.
Gujrat Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Ahmed Hassan Mattu said Sunrise that he had received several complaints from Gujrat chamber members about being dismissed from Lahore, Sialkot and other airports despite having authentic travel documents and recommendation letters.
He said the business community was very concerned about such a tough immigration policy by the FIA as real businessmen should not be stopped or bothered at airports.
When asked about the reasons for the discharge, FIA Gujranwala Zonal Director Muhammad Bin Ashraf said Sunrise that no tough policy or new instructions have been adopted regarding the discharge of passengers with false documents or suspicious motives.
