United States Embassy in collaboration with Sustainable Social Development Organisation (SSDO) concluded an international conference on countering Trafficking in Persons (TIP) in Pakistan. The theme was to strengthen institutional capacity to reduce trafficking in persons and also help victims get needed support.
US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome was the guest of honour on the occasion. At his opening remarks, Blome said the human trafficking erodes the rule of law and the safety of various communities. Blome said when they make efforts together across government, business and civil society they could achieve the goals of combating human trafficking and could create a fairer and more equitable world.
FIA Director Muhammad Alam Shinwari said that Pakistan worked a lot on curbing the trafficking in person. He said more than 200 FIRs registered across Pakistan in 2022 regarding TIP. He said they need to develop hotline so that they could reach to the TIP cases quickly. He suggested to establish dash board online which could be reached by those who want to follow the cases.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa DIG Zaibullah Khan said the human smuggling and trafficking had become the third largest crime agency in the world. He said there was some flaws not only in police and other law enforcing agencies but they had to work more on the prosecution process that would also benefit the victims.
SSP Nida Chatta of Sindh police said in some cases legal guardians due to extreme poverty had put their children in forced labours and sexual activities. She said more than 400 cases of TIP registered in the past few months in Sindh.
Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed also shared his views and recommendations. He said in a single day more than 100 people were being smuggled indigenously and went into the hands of human smugglers who transport them abroad. He said the corrupt system in Pakistan was responsible for human smuggling that had been facilitating traffickers to misuse youth and children to earn money.
Terresa Chang of US embassy said the human trafficking was not the issue in Pakistan. She said it was a global phenomena that had to be addressed collectively. She said they had to work on protection and prosecution of the victims so that they could fight human smuggling.
