Offenders or victims of exploitation?

THIS is apropos of the news item ‘Minor offloaded’ (March 14). The FIA has arrested 12-year-old Akhtar Ali at Peshawar airport when he was about to board a Sharjah-bound plane.

The boy was provided passport by Pakistan and granted permission to work in Sharjah by the UAE. Sadly, the FIA treats such children as offenders and criminals, though the law of the land says that such children have to be treated as victims of exploitation and trafficking.

Some months ago, I had an opportunity to meet 16-year-old Mohammad Toheed at juvenile ward in district jail, Quetta.

Toheed travelled from Punjab to Iran in search of a job.

His brother had paid Rs20,000 to an agent. Toheed was arrested in the Kunruk area of Iran and was later deported.

In Pakistan, Toheed spent four days in the FIA lock-up in Quetta and was produced before the magistrate who awarded him 15 days’ sentence under Section 17 (border crossing) of the Emigration Ordinance 1979.

Toheed should have been sent to his family as he was received by the FIA in Pakistan.

Instead, the main culprits behind his travel to Iran should have been traced and sentenced because Toheed was a victim of exploitation.

In 2002, the Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance was promulgated and in 2004 the rules of the ordinance were framed. The law aims at controlling human trafficking and providing effective measures for preventing offences related to human trafficking and to protect and assist victims of such trafficking and exploitation.

The FIA is supposed to deal with cases of trafficking between the countries.

But, unfortunately, neither the FIA nor the judicial officers have ever given a child the status of a victim who is sent by agents to other countries.

It has been observed that not only in district jail, Quetta, but children caught from Dubai, Muscat, Iran and Bahrain are also found in FIA detention centres at different locations in Balochistan.

These children, sent by agents or relatives to other countries, are not considered victims by both the FIA and the courts.

Children are incarcerated when they are deported from other countries back to Pakistan.

Even if they are considered offenders, the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000 says that child offenders must be rehabilitated and provided proper counselling and support rather than being sent to jails.

I hope the FIA will not put Akhtar through the same incarceration process which Toheed and many other children have passed through.

ABDULLAH KHOSO
National Programme Manager, Juvenile Justice
Islamabad
http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/12/offenders-or-victims-of-exploitation.html