Pakistan to widen trafficking crackdown after German deportations

Islamabad (dpa) - Pakistani authorities are set to widen an ongoing crackdown against people smugglers after a flight carrying 28 deportees from Germany arrived in the capital Islamabad, officials said on Thursday.The chartered flight from Berlin landed in the city late Wednesday, a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official told dpa on condition of anonymity.The plane brought back rejected asylum seekers as well as those who tried to enter Germany using fake documents, the official said.As many as 16 deportees were released after a de-briefing at the FIA‘s anti-trafficking unit while the rest were still being interrogated, another unnamed source told dpa.Some of the deportees were arrested by border guards in the Czech Republic and Austria while trying to sneak into Germany and were then handed over to German authorities, the sources said.Some individuals reached Europe with the help of human traffickers, on whom Pakistani authorities are already carrying out a crackdown."We will use the information from them to widen the crackdown," an FIA source said.Last month, the FIA arrested nearly two dozen suspected people smugglers from the province of Punjab after the death of 20 illegal immigrants in a border region while they were on their way to Europe via Iran and Turkey.Thousands of young Pakistanis pay millions to traffickers to reach Europe every year using a dangerous land and sea route through Iran, Turkey and Greece.Hundreds of illegal immigrants either die on their way or end up in prison.