A human trafficking case pops up, highlighting a potentially wider problem. Jailan Halawi reports The rumours began after a short news item appeared on the front page of the daily Arabic Al-Ahram on Tuesday. It said that 25 Pakistani nationals had disappeared from the hotel they were staying at in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria. The Pakistanis had left behind their passports and belongings; their mysterious disappearance immediately catalysed widespread suggestions that a terrorist attack might soon occur. By Tuesday evening, the rumours were quashed; the Pakistanis were found and arrested in a flat near downtown Alexandria's Cleopatra district. A security source told Al-Ahram Weekly that investigations had revealed that the group was aiming to illegally immigrate to an unidentified European country, after clandestinely making their way across the Egyptian border. On Wednesday, an Interior Ministry statement provided more details. It said that a total of 59 Pakistani and 18 Bangladeshi nationals who were attempting to illegally immigrate to Greece and Italy -- via Egypt -- had been arrested. Three Egyptians who were facilitating their travel were also in custody, the statement said, although other members of the human trafficking gang were still at large. There is nothing new about Egyptians and foreigners using Egypt as part of illegal attempts to sneak into Europe in search of better job opportunities. With the increasing frequency of human trafficking, however, authorities have begun elevating the security threat it might pose to that of terrorist attacks. According to a former Egyptian diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity, the government needed to be especially vigilant because "on a daily basis, a great many Pakistanis are being smuggled out to various countries by organised racketeers." He said the smuggling was mostly taking place through the leaky border between Pakistan and Iran, and via small boats operating between the coastal belt of Baluchistan, Pakistan and Muscat, Dubai and other Gulf States. Mand Bilo and Radhik, located on the Baluchistan border, are the focal points for human trafficking to Iran, with or without travel documents. Investigations have also revealed that smugglers send people to and from Pakistan through authorised air, land and sea routes as well. Amongst the tools being used in the smuggling process are forged Pakistani passports with altered photos and biographical pages from genuine passports, genuine passports with forged or stolen visas, stolen Pakistani passports with fake entries, forged foreign resident cards, foreign passports with altered photos, and illegally-obtained but genuine foreign passports. In June, the Pakistani Embassy in Cairo unearthed a major human trafficking racket; its subsequent report to the Pakistani Foreign Affairs Ministry indicated that 90 per cent of the smuggling cases involving Pakistanis illegally immigrating to Europe through Egypt originate from Gujarat. The report said that Egyptian authorities had -- between 15 May and 8 June 2005 -- caught 42 Pakistanis who were attempting to illegally cross over to Europe on false documents. Some of them had even managed to reach Germany before being captured and sent back to Egypt. In the end, the Pakistani counsellor managed to secure their early release and deportation. On 8 June, Egyptian authorities captured five Pakistani nationals from Gujarat, charging them with travelling on fake documents. The Egyptian government then asked the Pakistani Embassy to arrange for the five Pakistanis to be deported back home. After the June bombings in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh that left scores dead, suspicions initially rested on six Pakistanis who were reported missing from a Cairo hotel; they were later officially declared "illegal aliens" who are believed to have crossed into Israel to seek out work. The six Pakistanis had entered Egyptian territory on 5 July and checked into a hotel in the southern Cairo suburb of Maadi, where their passports were later found. Pakistan appears to know exactly who is behind much of the human smuggling. In its report, the embassy clearly identified by name and political position the person who represented the Gujarat-based group believed to have been taking part in human smuggling since 2004; they also named the Egyptian agent who was involved. Thus far, however, there has not been any concrete evidence against any company/agency/agent in Pakistan or Egypt that helped these people enter the country. Political analysts said the human trafficking problem could only be resolved by dealing with the economic and political problems in the home countries of these would-be migrants. If they were able to earn their bread and butter at home, they might not be so readily willing to put their lives at risk.
