National Assembly Body Okays Prevention Of Smuggling Of Migrants (Amendments) Bill

The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Interior Wednesday unanimously passed "The Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants (Amendments) Bill, 2019".

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Dec, 2019 ) :The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Interior Wednesday unanimously passed "The Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants (Amendments) Bill, 2019".

The bill moved by Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak states,"Smuggling of the human beings and illegal ways of sending people abroad are also at the top. Illegal agents are deceiving several civil organizations including Federal Investigation Agency. Claiming to be the owner of legal travel agency these illegal agents sometime have shops nearby the passport office and claim to be authorized to send people outside the country.They serve the people from changing their dates of birth in CNICs (Computerized National Identity Cards) to providing them passports and other documents required to go outside the country.

"After getting massive fee from the innocent people for providing them passports and other documents, they use illegal tracks to let them go turkey, Iran and European countries, through a long and horrible journey.

"During the time period of 2005 to 2016, more than 1,100,000 people have been sent outside through this illegal ways. The new trend in human smuggling caused death of thousands of people on the border. Border security forces often shot the people being smuggled to death and the people who survive other challenges.

"According to a survey report, these illegal travel agents have smuggled more than 1100,000 people during the last 15 years. And according to the institution responsible for this survey 6, 00,000 people have been found but the rest of the people not found as yet.Reports say that these agents are provided security from the upper classes of the country in retaliation of the payment they receive.

That's why the era from 2005 to 2016 is seen to be the favorable for human smugglers.

"These heartless and enemy to the human race are not concerned with the lives of human beings and are playing with the lives of innocent people. Therefore, it is very important to amend the existing laws and stop such illegal happening. The bill has been devised to achieve the above purposes." The committee meeting, which was chaired by Raja Khurram Shahzad Nawaz, also considered other bills, including The Criminal Law Amendment Bill moved by Kishwer Zehra and The Islamabad Capital Territory Domestic Workers Bill, moved by Mehnaz Akbar Aziz.

The committee directed the secretary interior to take up the case of granting dual nationality to overseas Pakistanis in Malaysia with the government there through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It also recommended the ministry to raise Buner Wing of the Frontier Constabulary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The deputy inspector general (DIG) police Balochistan informed the committee that the women arrested in the Awaran district were released on December 9 due to insufficient evidence.

The NA body summoned the Balochistan home secretary in its next meeting for a briefing on the 'illegal detention' of women in Awaran. It also sought a report from the interior ministry on the issue.

Members of National Assembly Sher Akbar Khan, Sardar Talib Hassan Nakai,Syed Iftikhar Ul Hassan, Muhammad Pervaiz Malik, Syed Agha Rafiullh and Abdul Qadir Patel, and senior officers of relevant departments of federal and Balochistan governments attended the meeting.