Thousands of Pakistani citizens who left home in search of lawful livelihood are being held against their will in fraud compounds across Southeast Asia, and their government owes them a swift and dignified return. According to
The story of one such Pakistani, Farid from Narowal, lays bare the cruelty of this trade. A local agent took Rs800,000 from his family with the promise of a well-paid job abroad. Instead, Farid says he spent two years in a prison-like compound near the Cambodia-Laos border, cooking for hundreds of trafficked people from 9am until 4am, under threat of electric shocks for any defiance. He escaped during a crackdown, only to be detained by Cambodian police. He remains in a detention centre, waiting for the state to bring him home.
A nation's sons, sold and silenced
This is not a distant tragedy. It is a wound on the conscience of the ummah and a test of the Pakistani state's duty toward its own. Our youth, raised on the hope of halal earnings, were deceived by agents working within our own cities and villages. The same parents who scraped together money to send their children abroad now borrow again to bring them home. The betrayal began at home, and the remedy must begin at home too.
Farid approached the National Commission for Human Rights for help. Twice his return was delayed over documentation requirements, according to
Victims treated as criminals
Those trafficked are not always recognised as victims. Young people recruited in one country and forced to commit online fraud in another are often arrested when raids happen. Their expired visas or confiscated passports become grounds for detention, while the abuse they endured goes unpunished. Worse, criminal networks may misuse confiscated identity documents, implicating victims in crimes they never committed.
Across its 2025 and 2026 investigations, Amnesty International identified nearly 100 scam compounds in Southeast Asia, documenting human trafficking, forced labour and torture. The watchdog also warned that similar criminal networks are now taking root elsewhere, including in Pakistan itself.
In August 2026, a raid on a suspected illegal call centre in Islamabad led to the detention of 500 foreign nationals, including Chinese and Vietnamese citizens. During a visit to Adiala Jail, the NCHR chairperson met roughly 70 women detained in connection with fraudulent activities. Were they willing participants, or had they too been deceived? Justice demands that enforcement separate the organisers who profit from the victims who suffer.
What Pakistan must do now
The state already has institutions responsible for overseeing call-centre operations, yet many such businesses run without registration and without monitoring. A regularly updated registry, paired with real oversight, would let authorities distinguish lawful businesses from criminal fronts.
The recruitment networks inside Pakistan deserve far closer scrutiny. Who offers these jobs? Who collects the payments? What action follows when a family reports a son or daughter trafficked abroad? These are plain questions, and the state must answer them.
Coordination must improve between cybercrime investigators, immigration authorities, anti-trafficking agencies and Pakistan's diplomatic missions. Foreign nationals arrested in suspected scam operations should be screened for trafficking and given legal assistance. Pakistanis stranded abroad must receive timely documentation and repatriation, including in countries where no resident embassy exists.
Farid is still waiting in Cambodia. He survived two years of captivity and torture. It should not be so difficult for Pakistan to bring him home. A state that claims to honour faith and justice cannot leave its sons behind bars while their exploiters walk free.