GUJRANWALA (Kashmir English): Japan has deported a group of 22 men posing as being part of a football team, after they found their documents and identity to be fake, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said on Tuesday.
According to an FIA spokesperson, a key suspect in the human smuggling scam, got registered a football club under the name ‘Golden Football Trial’.
Waqas, a human trafficker, received Rs4 million from each individual to send them abroad via illegal means also used earlier.
“Professional football players”
The individuals were told to act like professional football players, the FIA spokesperson said, adding that Waqas prepared forged documents, including fake registrations from the Pakistan Football Federation and counterfeit papers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pakistan.
The documents falsely stated that they had matches scheduled in Japan, the FIA spokesperson said.
The ‘football team’ flew from Sialkot International Airport and reached Japan, where the authorities deported them after finding their documents to be fake.
Meanwhile, the FIA arrested Waqas and launched investigations in this regard. During the interrogation, the suspect confessed to having previously sent 17 people to Japan in January 2024 using the same method.
