ISLAMABAD, 13 December 2005 — Pakistan yesterday unfolded a plan to halt human trafficking. The launch of an official “Action Plan for Combating Human Trafficking” in Islamabad, was attended by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao and several non-governmental organizations including the International Organization for Migration(IOM).

Sherpao said his ministry was making efforts to prevent and control the human trafficking and the plan of action was meant for this purpose.

“With our efforts, Pakistan has been promoted to tier-2 by the US in its annual report on human trafficking which is a proof of our performance,” he said.

But human rights representatives said the issue required much greater effort by the government.

“Pakistan is the origin, a transit and destination country and needs more resources and energy to counter it,” Maryam Khokhar, an IOM official, said.

Situated at the cross-sections of South and Central Asia, straddling the Arabian Sea in the south, Pakistan is one of the top destinations for women from Nepal, Burma, and Bangladesh.

Human traffickers lure mostly poor women into Pakistan illegally by promising them good jobs but many end up as prostitutes or as menial domestic workers for low wages.

The majority of those illegal expatriate women, estimated to be at least half a million, lives in Karachi, a metropolis of 14 million inhabitants on the Arabian Sea.

Khokhar also underlined the incidence of “internal trafficking of women and children” in the country as an alarming trend.

“Children are still being trafficked from rural and far-flung areas and forced to work over 12 hours in severe conditions,” she said, pointing to the smuggling of children to Middle East and Gulf, where they are used as jockeys in camel races.

According to government figures, around 10,000 Pakistani children are employed in various camel clubs in the region.

Besides children, poor aspirants for a better future also fall prey to human smugglers, who manage to trap thousands of workers with the promise of jobs in the Gulf.

In last two years, the Gulf states of Oman, Abu Dhabi and others deported more than 100,000 illegal Pakistani immigrants, while hundreds were arrested, mostly on the Iranian and Turkish borders while on their way to European destinations like Greece and Poland.