Pakistani origin traffickers promised migrants to facilitate them in reaching Europe
Turkish police have rescued fifty-seven Pakistani migrants who had been chained up in an Istanbul basement by people smugglers trying to extort money.
According to the local media, human smugglers promised the migrants for passing them to Europe for $10,000, with the money to be paid after they arrived.
The migrants had reportedly hoped to reach Europe via Greece or Italy, giving a code to the traffickers to access the money upon reaching Europe.
Turkish Police also detained three traffickers of Pakistani origin on suspicion of misleading the migrants during the raid on the European side of the city.
In recent years, hundreds of thousands of migrants including from countries including Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan Pakistan have entered Europe through border-crossing like risky channels.
At the height of the refugee crisis in 2015, over a million migrants arrived in Europe by sea, though the numbers have declined since a 2016 deal between Turkey and the European Union.
The incident comes days after bullet-riddles bodies of 20 people attempting to illegally cross into Iran on their way to Europe via Turkey were found near Balochistan’s Turbat area in two separate incidents.
The Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) had claimed responsibility for the deaths and an alleged BLF commander suspected of involvement in one of the incidents was later killed during an intelligence-based operation by Frontier Corps (FC). Human traffickers were also arrested in separate operations in Punjab.