Over the past two years, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has probed 3,458 human trafficking cases, yet only 1,044 perpetrators have been convicted by different courts in the country, Daily Times has learnt.
According to the documents submitted in the National Assembly (NA) by FIA, the cases were launched by Anti-Human Smuggling Directorate of FIA under Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2018 (TIP, 2018).
Under the act, any person who involved in recruiting, harboring, transporting another person or attempt to do so for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through use of force, fraud or coercion is offender. Such offenders shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to seven years or with fine which may extend to one million rupees or with both.
In past two years (2023 and 2024), the legal proceedings can be made against only 2, 0697 out of aforementioned total number of suspects. After the successful legal battle, more than 1,044 accused have been punished by various courts.
The FIA stated that human trafficking remains a major concern in the country. Despite continuous efforts to tackle the issue, challenges persist, particularly in improving the capabilities of investigation and prosecution officers, as well as strengthening mechanisms to effectively prevent and combat trafficking.
About alleged involvement of its officials in this crime, the agency clarified that strict measures are enforced against any official if found involved in human trafficking with those facilitating or participating in such activities being held accountable to maintain the integrity of the system.
The prime investigating watchdog admitted that the law enforcement agencies, especially at the provincial and the district level, continue to face significant challenges due to lack of necessary training and resource to affectively tackle sophisticated and transactional trafficking networks. It added that overburdened officers often handling multiple responsibilities across vast areas struggle to manage the complexity of human trafficking.
As per documents, efforts are underway to increase specialized training programs for law enforcement and FIA officers in collaboration with international partners. These programs focus on improving investigating skills and adopting modern techniques to end trafficking up from the roots.
“As many as 31,598 staffers have been trained by FIA and provincial police in 2024,” reads the document.
Besides this, over 40,000 awareness campaigns are conducted by provincial labor department, social welfare department and child protection bureau in 2024. The FIA observed human trafficking week from May 31, 2023 to August 6, 2023. As part of the national awareness campaign, FIA along with UNODC and IOM did a campaign on trafficking in person and smuggling of migrants in 2023.
The FIA has developed 5-year national action plan (2021-25) to combat human trafficking and migrants smuggling in collaboration with UNODC. The overall goal of the plan is to combat human trafficking and migrants smuggling in the country by strengthening capacities of key institutions through capacity building, awareness raising, coordination, gender and age disaggregated data management, establishment of necessary mechanisms and international cooperation. In light of TIP 2018 and TIP rules 2020, the FIA has issued SOPs for identification of victims, referral and provision of services.
The FIA uses TIP laws for the enhancing punishment, effective prosecution, non criminalization of victim, role of federal, provincial department determined, support and assistance victims, referral to support resources, return and repatriation of victims, protection of victims and witness, awareness and preventive measures of trafficking in persons.