19 more Pakistanis released from Yemen arrive home

(13/02/2004)
The News

"KARACHI: The 19 more Pakistani crewmen who were on slave labour in a private jail on a dead ship in deep seawater of Aden, since last two years and got released by the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International from the clutches of human smuggler agents, arrived back home on Sunday. The authorities found their travelling documents in order.

The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has already brought 197 such Pakistani youngsters back to Pakistan from Yemen, in the last few months, who were smuggled from Pakistan to Aden by the human smuggler agents, where they sold them to another agent for slave labour.

Those who arrived on Sunday were from Gujrat, Gujranwala, Lahore, Mandibahauddin, Karachi, Peshawar and other parts of Pakistan. All of their expenses were borne by the Ansar Burney Trust.

Syed Fahad Burney, Vice Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International and other volunteers of the Trust received them at the Karachi Airport.

After arrival these Pakistanis thanked Ansar Burney and said they were in slave labour camps where they spent their time in miserable conditions. To quench their thirst they were drinking seawater after boiling it. They were starving and had no medical facilities on the dead ship.

The released Pakistanis revealed that hundreds of Pakistanis are still waiting for someone to come to their rescue.

"Misery started two years ago when some agent took these Pakistanis to Yemen and sold them to another Yemeni Agent like cattle where they were asked to do slave labour on the ship. The owner of the ship has not paid a single penny to these Pakistani youngsters since their arrival, as a result of which they were facing pathetic and crucial time on the port," Fahad Burney, Vice Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, said.

Syed Fahad Burney, said that these Pakistani seamen went to Yemen through legal procedure and their local Yemeni agents, received all the seamen at the airport and got them cleared with the immigration.

Syed Fahad Burney further said right now Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International did not have sufficient funds to bring all such stranded seamen back to Pakistan for their rehabilitation, as their parents were also very poor. He asked the well-to-do people to come forward and extend a helping hand to Mr Ansar Burney to help the crying humanity in our society.

He said Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International could be contacted at; 6 Hassan Manzil, Arambagh Road, Karachi, Phone (021) 2626274, 2623382.

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