By Amraiz Khan

LAHORE, Pakistan - Human smugglers by changing their modus operandi have impersonated themselves as visa consultants in the City as there is no law in the country to make visa consultants accountable to any law enforcement agency of the country, sources in the FIA confided to TheNation on Thursday.

"We have repeatedly forwarded our requests to the Ministry of Labour Manpower & Overseas Pakistanis for framing rules and regulations for the visa consultants, but the Ministry remains unmoved," a senior officer of the FIA said.

Number of complaints aga-inst student visa consultants had shoot up to an alarming level in the FIA Lahore office, he said and added that there was no difference in education and immigration consultancy. A good number of advertisements offering admission abroad with hundred per cent guarantee of visa appeared regularly in the newspapers, an FIA investigator said, adding that it was not the consultants' job.

Sources in the Agency said that student visa consultants directly asked the youngsters about the country where they were interested to go and then they managed his/her visa at any cost.

Whereas "the job of the consultant is only to guide the students about the educational institutions of the world that where he/she can get admission," the sources said and added that for the consultancy services the consultant could charge the students Rs 20,000 (S$582) to 40,000 (S$1,164) per head.

But here in the light of complaints received from the students it is discovered that consultants are receiving the amounts in lakhs, which shows that they are not consulting for admission but for immigration.

Their business is running with the connivance of Pakistanis settled in the European countries who have got registered 'ghost' educational institutions there, only to issue admission letters to the students seeking job abroad.

Such institutions comprised not more than one to two rooms and European governments had also become alert against these institutions, the sources disclosed.

They said that most of the human smugglers hailed from the districts of upper Punjab, adding that these smugglers who were earlier involved in human smuggling, had now opened their offices in the name of students visa consultancy, a safe way to smuggle the youngsters to European and American countries.

Neither the FIA nor the MLM&OP was in position to take action against the student visa consultants as there was no law to deal with the said consultants.

European and American countries were also worried about the registration of ghost schools and colleges which were issuing admission letters to different students and these countries have formed their vigilance teams to monitor these institutions.

Recognised institutions of the US and the European countries had also mentioned the names of their consultants in their respective websites to avoid any inconvenience, an FIA investigator said, when contacted.

Certain students who visit abroad on study visa are exploited by the employers of those countries since the students have the option to work 20 hours per week legally whereas they go for more than that and they work about 50 to 60 hours illegally. The employer does not pay them wages as per labour law as they work beyond their limits illegally.

-The Nation/Asia News Network