GUJRANWALA: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday confirmed the safe return of 15 Pakistani nationals who survived a recent boat capsizing near Dakhla port, Morocco.
The investigation agency has identified the human smugglers responsible for sending these individuals to Spain via North Africa and has initiated raids to apprehend them.
An FIA spokesperson stated that eight of the survivors returned home Saturday morning, following the return of seven others the previous night.
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.
At least 50 people were killed in the incident.
The rising death toll of Pakistanis in similar maritime incidents has resulted a strong response from the government, prompting the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to demand strict action against human smugglers and the officials facilitating their operations.
FIA Director General (DG) Ahmed Ishaque Jehangir’s decision to 35 officials for facilitating the human smuggling mafia in illegal migration and failing to uphold their duties earlier this month turned out to be insufficient as he himself was removed from his post on Wednesday.
Sources said that Jehangir’s removal — in the wake of cases of illegal migration and migrant boat tragedies which have become alarmingly frequent — was approved by PM Shehbaz, reportedly for the slow pace of investigations in the boat capsizing incidents and large-scale illegal migration.
Jehangir has since been reassigned as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Establishment Division.
Meanwhile, the eight passengers — aged 21 years to 41 years — arrived at Islamabad airport earlier today via Qatar Airways flight QR614 and are currently being questioned by officials, he noted.
The survivors of the ill-fated boat include Muhammad Afzal, Muhammad Adeel, Irfan Ahmed, Arsalan Shamil, Ghulam Mustafa, Badram Muhiuddin, Mujahid Ali, and Tasbeeh Ahmed Shamil, who returned home today.
Two passengers are from Sheikhupura, two from Sialkot, two from Mandi Bahauddin, and one each from Gujarat and Jhelum, according to the spokesperson.
Among the seven Pakistanis who returned last night, three hail from Gujarat and one each from Mandi Bahauddin, Hafizabad, Gujranwala and Sialkot.
“These passengers tried to illegally go to Spain via Dubai, Senegal after settling deals worth of hundreds of thousands of rupees with agents,” the FIA spokesperson said.
“The agents sent the citizens to Dubai, Ethiopia and later to Senegal on visit visas. An attempt was also made to send them to Spain by sea from Senegal.”
The spokesperson disclosed that several gangs, that were involved in sending illegal migrants to Spain, have been exposed after the passengers were identified.
According to the FIA, the passengers were also subjected to torture by the agents and information about them and their facilitators is being taken from the passengers.
The initial investigation revealed that the agents belong to different areas of Punjab.
The FIA spokesperson also revealed some of the agents’ names. These inlcude an agent named Usman, human smugglers named Ali Raza, Fadi Gujjar, and Usman who lives in Lahore.
The probe agency also warned citizens to “always contact the embassy of the relevant country” before travelling to that country.
“Do not hand over your personal documents to an unrelated person,” warned the spokesperson.
