Fake Pakistani Football Team Caught And Deported From Japan, Arrested On Human Trafficking Suspicion: Report
A group of 22 men, pretending to be football players, were deported by Japanese authorities, and later exposed as part of a human trafficking ring.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the premier law enforcement body in Pakistan, have caught a group of 22 men on suspicion of human trafficking under the disguise of being part of a football team. As per a report by Geo TV, the group of 22 men flew from Sialkot to Japan. However, upon touchdown in Japan, the men were deported when Japanese authorities found their documents to be fake. According to a spokesperson of the FIA, the individuals were trained to act and behave like professional footballers, and carried a number of fake documents.
The report states that the FIA pointed out an individual named Malik Waqas, who had registered a fake football club named 'Golden Football Trial'. Waqas is reportedly a major suspect in the human trafficking scam, having also previously been involved in a similar activity in 2024.
According to the report, Waqas charged each individual of the football team PKR 4 million (INR 12 lakh approx.) in order to send them abroad illegally.
Waqas had reportedly forged a number of documents, such as fake registrations from the Pakistan Football Federation and counterfeit papers from their Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As per the report, Waqas was arrested by the FIA's Composite Circle on September 15. The FIA also launched investigations on the matter. Upon interrogation, Waqas confessed to having sent 17 men to Japan in January 2024 using a similar method of a fake football team.
On the topic of illegal immigration, Pakistan started a crackdown on undocumented immigrants, including hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals from November 2023.
Pakistan was home to more than 4 million Afghan migrants and refugees, about 1.7 million of them undocumented, according to the interior ministry, including many who were born in Pakistan and lived there their entire lives.
Islamabad says it took the decision after Afghan nationals were found to be involved in crimes, smuggling and 14 suicide bombings out of 24 this year, alleging that the terrorists use Afghan soil to train fighters and plan attacks inside Pakistan.