Human trafficking attempt foiled in Rawalpindi

RAWALPINDI: Four passengers, including a woman, involved in an alleged illegal attempt to enter Europe from Saudi Arabia through illegal means have been apprehended by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Immigration at the New Islamabad International Airport.

The passengers have been taken off the flight and handed over to the FIA's Anti-Human Trafficking Circle in Islamabad for further investigation.

As per officials at the FIA, the four passengers were travelling to Saudi Arabia on Umrah visas when they became subject to secondary profiling at the immigration desk. After a thorough inspection of their travel documents, there was suspicion because one of the passengers had been deported from Türkiye for illegal entry.

Additionally, during the search process, it was found out that the Azerbaijan visit visas were discovered from two of the passengers which furthered suspicion over the alleged illegal migration attempt.

After examining the suspects’ mobile phones through forensics, it was found out that two of the suspects had planned to travel to Saudi Arabia along with their mother under the garb of Umrah performance and plan to send her back to Pakistan after they continue their journey towards Europe illegally.

A forensic examination of the passengers' mobile phones revealed that two of them planned to accompany their mother to Saudi Arabia under the pretext of performing Umrah. They allegedly intended to send her back to Pakistan while they continued their journey illegally towards Europe.

Chat records recovered from the phones indicated that the suspects planned to reach Europe via the Baku-Serbia route and had been in regular contact with agents .