Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has uncovered and begun dismantling a Cambodia-based human smuggling network that allegedly lured citizens — especially from Gilgit-Baltistan — with fake overseas job offers before trapping them in forced labour and illicit online schemes in Southeast Asia.
FIA teams identified suspects who conducted online interviews promising well-paid work, then transported victims via Lahore airport to Cambodia. On arrival, the victims’ passports were confiscated and they were held in confinement near the Vietnam border and coerced into illegal activities, with families pressured to pay ransoms of up to several thousand dollars for their release. Authorities have arrested key suspects and obtained physical remand while launching special teams to track additional members of the trafficking ring as part of ongoing investigations into this cross-border criminal network.