KARACHI: At least 30 passengers bound for various countries were offloaded from planes on suspicion of people smuggling at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport late on Saturday, immigration officials said.

Immigration officials suspected that most of the landed individuals might be victims of people smuggling. They said most of them were moved to the Anti-People Smuggling Ring for further investigation, while a few others were allowed to return home.

Officials said the offloaded passengers were questioned for various reasons.

Abid Ali, a passenger bound for Saudi Arabia, was flagged on the Integrated Border Management System (IBMS) list. Similarly, Salman Riaz, a civil servant traveling to the Gulf on a work visa, lacked the required No Objection Certificate (NOC).

Several other passengers bound for Saudi Arabia – Aftab Ahmed, Mohammad Khalil, Mohammad Riaz and Ahmed Khan – were found to have incomplete documents. Another passenger, Faiz, on a visitor visa, lacked sufficient funds for travel expenses and hotel reservations.

Officials also suspected passengers Umrah Iqbal, Imran, Mujahid, another Imran and Ijaz to be involved in human trafficking.

Meanwhile, a passenger traveling to Azerbaijan was disembarked on suspicion of being linked to people-smuggling operations in Europe.

Nine passengers – Fazal, Hussain, Najaf, Liaqat, Kashif, Anzal, Owais, Mohsin and Shabbir – were also taken off the flight to Azerbaijan.

In another case, an Oman-bound passenger, Shaukat, was found without sufficient funds in his bank account for travel expenses and hotel bookings. Babar Khalil and Hamza Javed, who were also traveling to Oman, were landed due to incomplete work visa documentation.

Records showed that Aminullah, another passenger bound for Oman, had two passports issued in his name.

Traveler to Dubai Saira Bano did not provide sufficient details of her travel expenses, accommodation and purpose of visit.

In addition, Nigerian nationals Daniel Saqib and Syed Bilal Hussain traveled without work visas, while Tanzania-bound passengers Sadaf Mustafa and Muhammad Ijaz lacked hotel reservations and sufficient funds to travel.