Pakistani authorities plan to begin surveillance of young people travelling to at least 15 countries to curb increasing human trafficking to Europe via deadly sea and land routes in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, officials have said.
All passengers between the ages of 15 and 40 are to be questioned by immigration officials before boarding flights to the countries allegedly used as transit routes by people smugglers, at least two officials told dpa.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which handles immigration, issued an advisory to its ground officers at airports to profile passengers travelling from regions seen as hotspots for human trafficking to Pakistan, the officials added.
The advisory was issued after several Pakistani young men recently drowned in the Mediterranean and Pacific Sea in accidents affecting boats taking illegal migrants to Europe from Libya and Morocco. No exact estimates are available as to how many Pakistanis attempt to reach Europe every year, but officials said the number is in the hundreds of thousands.
Young people pay millions of rupees to human smugglers who run global operations, aiming to embark on potentially deadly journeys across land and sea, routes on which they are in danger of drowning or being killed by border guards in countries such as Iran, Turkey, Libya or Greece.
Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Libya, Mauritania, Iraq, Turkey and Kyrgyzstan are the countries usually serving as transit routes for illegal immigration to Europe, the officials said.
