Pakistani human traffickers use Malta as staging post for Europe

A Pakistan-based human trafficking ring has set up a successful business in Malta, where Pakistanis seeking illegal entry into mainland Europe are being furnished with new travel documents and transported on to Italy and Spain, according to a report published in a leading Pakistani daily newspaper on Friday.

The report cites sources within the Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), who say that the illegal migration of Pakistanis to Europe is being carried out through Malta, from where the migrants are being transported by ship to Sicily and onward to countries such as Italy and Spain.

The sources quoted said that human traffickers have established a network in Malta, where legal travel documents are arranged for their “clients”. The clients, according to the sources, are purportedly entering Malta as tourists and then moving on, documents supplied in Malta in hand, to their final destinations in mainland Europe.