A 29-year-old Sydney man could face up to 12 years in prison after allegedly abandoning his wife and children in Pakistan without their travel documents before returning to Australia alone.
Authorities claim the man misled his wife about the nature of the trip, telling her they were traveling to Pakistan to visit her family. An investigation was launched in November after the woman reported being left stranded in Pakistan without the necessary paperwork to return home.
According to the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the man allegedly retained control of all the family’s tickets, passports, visas, and other travel documents during a trip to Afghanistan in July 2023, before continuing to Pakistan. Upon arriving in Pakistan, the husband reportedly told his wife that he was returning to Afghanistan to visit friends, but two months later, she discovered that he had returned to Australia alone.
The AFP raided the man’s home in Auburn and charged him with one count of exit trafficking, involving the use of deception. If convicted, he could face up to 12 years in prison.
AFP Detective Acting Inspector Emmanuel Tsardoulias described exit trafficking as a form of modern slavery, noting that there were 30 reports of this crime in 2022–2023. “Exit trafficking can involve coercion, deception, or threats to facilitate someone’s departure from Australia,” Tsardoulias explained.
