FIA Foils Fake Australian Visa Scam, Offloads Five Passengers at Sialkot Airport

At Sialkot International Airport, the FIA Immigration foiled an attempt by five passengers to travel to Australia using fake visas. The passengers, including a woman and children, were offloaded after the verification process revealed that the Australian visit visas had no record in the official system.

The passengers were identified as Mian Faraz, Muhammad Afzal, Aamna Afzal, minor Inam Afzal, and Muhammad Hashim, all residents of Sialkot. During initial questioning, they stated that the fake visas had been obtained from an agent named Ibrahim Kashif, reportedly for 12 million UAE dirhams.

Following the offloading, Mian Faraz and Muhammad Afzal were transferred to the FIA Composite Circle in Gujranwala for further investigation to identify other agents involved and proceed with legal action.

Separately, the FIA Gujranwala Zone intensified its crackdown on human smuggling and visa fraud, arresting four suspects, including a woman. The arrests were made by the FIA Anti-Human Smuggling Circles of Gujrat and Gujranwala. The suspects, Abdul Subhan Malik, Idrees Ali, Muhammad Riaz, and Farhana, were apprehended from various areas of Gujranwala.

According to FIA reports, the suspects allegedly extorted large sums from citizens under the pretext of arranging overseas travel. They reportedly collected a total of Rs11.5 million for facilitating travel to countries including Norway, Australia, Spain, and Portugal.