Quoted by BBC.

“Pakistanis becoming fodder for Iraq war machine”

I don’t have a clue to how this was picked up from a story I wrote more than a year ago, but the pickup is on the jump.
Excerpt from report by Pakistani newspaper The News website on 13 November, by Shahid Husain, headlined “Pakistanis becoming fodder for Iraq war machine”
Karachi: A group of 600 Pakistanis deported from Oman arrived aboard a ship here on Thursday [9 November], with their dreams of a better life shattered. Packed like sardines aboard the vessel, they were the victims of a massive network that lures young men with promises of easy money in foreign lands. Their story is no different from that of thousands of others.
Human trafficking from Pakistan to other countries, especially in the Middle East, is rampant through legal as well as illegal channels, a well placed official of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told The News. The confirmation comes in the wake of reports published abroad that a large number of migrant workers from impoverished South Asian countries such as the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal are becoming fodder for the US war machine in Iraq.
“About 9,000 to 10,000 immigrants from Pakistan are deported from Muscat alone every year as a result of human trafficking,” says Muhammad Malik, additional director, FIA Passport Circle. “About 60-70 per cent of the deportees hail from the Punjab, 15 per cent from the North West Frontier Province, 10 per cent from Sindh and 5 per cent from Baluchistan,” he adds.
The process of human trafficking begins by either travelling, on legal documents, to Dubai, where a well-organized ring of unscrupulous agents provides forged documents for the onward journey to Europe, the United States and the Middle Eastern countries, or, without any documents, through Mand Biloo in Baluchistan along the border with Iran.
“The person vying to go abroad bears an expense ranging from 25,000 to 2.5m rupees [approx 400-40,000 US dollars] on an average, depending whether the destination is Muscat or the United States,” Malik said.
The intending immigrants are booked for Muscat (Sultanate of Oman) and Dubai (the UAE) in different parts of the Punjab, Sindh, the NWFP, FATA/PATA [tribal areas] as well as from Karachi, and their boarding is usually arranged in small hotels in the slum areas of Karachi, namely Lyari and Lea Market. From there, they are transported to Mand Biloo through coaches and buses in the early hours of the day up until noon. They reach Mand Billo, a small Baluchistan town bordering Iran, in about 24 hours. The fare per person is 600 rupees.
On arrival at Mand Biloo, the local agents hand over the immigrants to Iranian human traffickers who then transport these persons through the night using pick-ups. After forming groups of 150 to 300 immigrants, the traffickers dispatch them to the coastal areas of the Sultanate of Oman through antiquated launches. Not surprisingly, many immigrants from Pakistan are apprehended by Omani marines and deported.
According to the data compiled by the FIA, the number of Pakistani deportees from Muscat in 2003 was 6,018. The number was 10,294 in 2004, 10,004 in 2005 and 6,438 between January-October 2006. [passage omitted]
“Dubai is a transit point where the forged documents used by immigrants for onward journey are processed,” said Malik. Though Malik pleaded ignorance in regards to the trafficking of cheap labour from Pakistan to Iraq for use in the so-called reconstruction efforts being carried out over there by American multinationals, a story aired by CorpWatch, an American organization that monitors the activities of multinational companies across the world, has made startling disclosures.
“Largely hailing from impoverished South Asian countries such as the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, these labourers earn monthly salaries between 200 and 1,000 dollars. They work as truck drivers, construction workers, carpenters, warehousemen, laundry workers, cooks, accountants, beauticians and similar blue-collar jobs for the US military,” disclosed David Phinney, an American journalist, in a piece for CorpWatch. [passage omitted]
Called “third country nationals” (TCNs) in contractor’s parlance, this “invisible” and “indispensable” army of low-paid workers forms an “untraceable trail of contract labour,” according to Phinney. TCNs are employed through complex layers of companies working in Iraq. At the top of the pyramid-shaped system is the US government, which has assigned over 24bn dollars in contracts over the last two years. [passage omitted]
Source: The News website, Islamabad, in English 13 Nov 06
LOAD-DATE: November 13, 2006

Pakistani migrants said “fodder” for US in Iraq BBC Monitoring South Asia – PoliticalSupplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring November 13, 2006 Monday
Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation
All Rights Reserved
BBC Monitoring South Asia – Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring
November 13, 2006 Monday
LENGTH: 747 words
HEADLINE: Pakistani migrants said “fodder” for US in Iraq