Pakistan has stepped up its use of artificial intelligence to combat human smuggling by identifying suspicious travel patterns, detecting emerging trafficking routes and strengthening border screening, while expanding cryptocurrency investigations targeting money laundering and terror financing, a senior immigration official said.
The technology-driven strategy follows the June 2023 capsizing of an overcrowded migrant boat off the Greek town of Pylos that killed 262 Pakistanis among about 650 migrants aboard. One of the deadliest migrant disasters in the Mediterranean, the tragedy prompted Islamabad to intensify its crackdown on human smuggling networks and modernize its immigration and border management systems.
“The boat capsizing in 2023 was a watershed moment in our history,” Nouman Siddiqui, additional director-general for immigration at Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), told Arab News.
“After the capsizing of that boat in the Mediterranean Sea, we employed many technological interventions as far as immigration is concerned.”
Umar Riaz, an adviser on immigration policy and law enforcement at Adam Smith International, said the FIA’s adoption of AI and data analytics reflected the growing role of technology in border management and anti-smuggling operations worldwide.
But the FIA’s responsibility for managing millions of travelers as well as investigating human smuggling presented “challenges and opportunities” for using big data, risk analytics and new technologies, Riaz added.
“FIA’s recent initiatives and direction in data integration, AI analytics and dedicated crypto investigation cell will prove to be quite useful for preventing human smuggling as per international best practices and requirements,” he said.
One of the FIA’s latest initiatives is an AI-supported database of the country’s most-wanted human smugglers, replacing paper records with a digital platform accessible to investigators and the public.
“Now we are embarking on a new phase, and this is the most wanted traffickers and human smugglers webpage that has been designed by our team,” Siddiqui said.
“This will be available not only for the general public but also for all investigating officers. This is an AI-based, AI-supported web application.”
The platform includes photographs and biographical details of suspected smugglers, while AI is used to generate different versions of their appearance to assist with identification. It also allows citizens to submit information about suspected traffickers to the FIA.
Authorities are also using AI-assisted passenger profiling to identify travelers who may be at risk of attempting irregular migration before they board outbound flights.
“We have started profiling passengers. We have a risk analysis unit that continuously feeds us data, and the data is processed through AI,” Siddiqui said.
“AI helps us make decisions whether to stop a passenger from boarding or not.”
He said passengers prevented from boarding could challenge the decision through legal channels.
“We don’t take arbitrary decisions at all. There would be human error, but there are appellate authorities. If an aggrieved party thinks they have been offloaded on unjustified grounds, they can appeal.”
AI-assisted analysis has also helped authorities identify previously unknown routes used by human smuggling networks.
According to FIA data, about 15,800 Pakistanis traveled to Cyprus on visit visas between January 2025 and April 2026, but only 3,553 had returned by the end of the period. More than 57,000 traveled to Azerbaijan, with over 3,000 remaining abroad after the expiry of their visit visas. About 4,000 traveled to Malawi, of whom more than 3,000 had also not returned after their visas expired, while more than 13,000 Pakistanis traveled to Uzbekistan during the same period, with over 2,200 likewise remaining abroad after the expiry of their visit visas. Siddiqui said the figures were based on FIA exit-entry records and referred to travelers who had not returned after the expiry of their visit visas.
“The routes have been opened by human smugglers, and we didn’t know these routes were open,” Siddiqui said, adding that tighter screening measures were beginning to show results.
He cited data shared with Pakistani authorities by the European Union’s border agency, Frontex, saying illegal migration from Pakistan fell by 16 percent in 2025 and by 64 percent during January-February 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier.
A key part of Pakistan’s technology-driven strategy is its Integrated Border Management System (IBMS), deployed at airports, land crossings and seaports. The system combines facial recognition, document authentication and real-time checks against multiple watchlists to screen travelers.
“We have facial recognition in IBMS, and no one can impersonate any Pakistani or any foreigner,” Siddiqui said.
He said the system contains 602 million travel records, including 294 million records relating to foreign nationals, as well as around one million names on stop lists.
Pakistan is also strengthening its ability to investigate the use of cryptocurrency in financial crimes, including human smuggling, money laundering and terror financing.
To support those investigations, the FIA established a dedicated Virtual Currency Investigation Cell about two months ago, equipped with legal, technological and investigative capabilities.
“We have recently established a Virtual Currency Investigation Cell at FIA headquarters, which is equipped with legal, technological and investigative capabilities to combat the use of cryptocurrencies for crime,” Siddiqui said.
“On crypto, there is mostly money laundering and terror financing. This is a new trend.”
Siddiqui said the unit was already working on its first investigations, though he declined to discuss specific cases, saying cryptocurrency probes were technically sophisticated and could take time to conclude.
Pakistan was removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s “increased monitoring” list in 2022 after implementing reforms aimed at strengthening anti-money laundering and counterterror financing controls.
Islamabad is also moving to strengthen its legal framework to target the financial proceeds of human smuggling, Siddiqui said.
He said the offenses of human smuggling and trafficking would soon be added to the schedule of Pakistan’s Anti-Money Laundering Act through an executive order rather than a legislative amendment.
According to Siddiqui, the federal government’s National Executive Committee has approved the move and the government will soon issue an order to include the two offenses in the schedule to the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010.
“If they are placed under the Schedule Offences of the AMLA, the human smuggler will not only be booked for the predicate offense of human smuggling or trafficking in persons, they will also be booked under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010,” he said.