GUJRANWALA: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said on Tuesday that Japan has deported a group of 22 men who posed as a football team after authorities found their travel documents to be fake.
An FIA spokesperson said Malik Waqas, a key suspect in the human smuggling scam, registered a football club under the name ‘Golden Football Trial’.
Waqas, a human trafficker, received Rs4 million from each individual to send them abroad via illegal means.
The individuals were trained to act like professional football players, the PIA spokesperson said, adding that Waqas had prepared forged documents, including fake registrations from the Pakistan Football Federation and counterfeit papers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The documents falsely stated that matches were scheduled in Japan, the FIA spokesperson added.
The group of 22 men flew from Sialkot International Airport and reached Japan, where the authorities deported them after finding their documents to be fake.
Meanwhile, the FIA arrested Waqas and launched investigations in this regard. During the interrogation, the suspect confessed to having previously sent 17 people to Japan in January 2024 using the same method.
Human traffickers are adopting new tactics after authorities tightened scrutiny at land borders.
It is pertinent to mention here that scores of Pakistanis leave the country through illegal routes in search of a better future every year, with some losing their lives in accidents along the way.
In a bid to combat human trafficking and enhance migration governance, the United Nations (UN) in Pakistan last month formally launched the Pakistan United Nations Network on Migration (UNNM).
The launch marked a significant step towards a unified, collaborative approach to migration governance and responding to the interconnected challenges of human trafficking and migrant smuggling.
The move was aligned with international frameworks, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).
The joint programme contributes to the national efforts in the areas of migration management and governance and combating human trafficking and migrant smuggling with a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach.
