ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Sunday arrested three Afghan nationals including two women from Islamabad International Airport when they were trying to travel to Germany on fake documents.
The arrested suspects, identified as Shiba Ameen, Nida Kharoti and Abdul Biyas Kharoti wanted to travel to the European country on forged residency permits, a private newspaper quoted FIA sources as saying.
However, during the immigration process, it emerged that all three had fake documents and were offloaded immediately. Later, the FIA arrested the Afghan nationals and transferred them to the anti-human trafficking cell to investigate the case further.
In recent months, the investigation agency had stepped up operations against human traffickers and travel agents involved in the business of fake visa on the pretext of arranging jobs and consultation across Punjab.
According to officials, the traffickers lure overseas job seekers, extort millions of rupees from them and send them illegally to Europe via Turkey and Greece through the Iranian border.
Spain busts ring bringing Pakistani migrants into EU
Earlier in November, Spanish police have dismantled a smuggling ring suspected of bringing hundreds of Pakistani migrants into the European Union overland in “life-threatening conditions”.
The smuggling group took Pakistanis from camps in Bosnia to Italy or Spain, said a statement from Europol, which was involved in the Spanish operation.
“Transported in life-threatening conditions in cars, vans or trucks, they often spend days confined with little or no supplies,” the European Union law enforcement agency said.
During the operation, which involved police from eight countries, Croatian police intercepted a lorry transporting 77 Pakistani migrants in a space measuring just eight square metres (86 square feet), a Spanish police statement said.
