Bulgaria, Greece and Italy are favorit destinations of Human Smugglers – Why ?
The staff members of the EU embassies are involved in Visa matters ?
Where the Investigation into Gujrat fraud cases of Bulgaria work Visa reached ?
Tazeen Akhtar
Bulgaria, Italy and Greece are three favorite countries in the European Union for Pakistani human smugglers and it has been proved repeatedly by the arrests of agents and offloading of travelers whose final destination was one of these countries.
In a latest raid by Federal Investigation Agency – FIA, Gujarat circle , agent Mohammad Bashir has been arrested for the same charges. There were Five cases against him and he was wanted in FIRs ,522/2025#50/2025، 460/2025، 494/2025، 515/2025. The total amount he received from his clients is 11 Million 250 thousand Rs.
He would smuggle his clients to Italy, Greece and other EU countries via Azerbaijan and Dubai. He would use fake travel documents that would lead to arrests of the travelers at the airports.
That is not the whole story. Here comes another case that also belongs to FIA Gujrat circle and in this case the country is Bulgaria and the arrested human smugglers are not agents but former embassy staffers.
FIA Gujrat registered two FIRs against two staffers of the Embassy of Bulgaria more than 3 months ago and no one knows where the investigation reached and where the accused are after they were detained months ago.
Mohammad Arsalan and Ali Raza of Gujrat launched their complaints on 15 July 2025 against two brothers who were staff members of the Bulgaria Embassy.
They are ;Mr. Oliver Earnest s/o Earnest Philipe and Mr. Iven Earnest s/o Earnest Philipe who are Pakistanis from Islamabad. FIA Gujrat registered FIR on 24 March 2026 after completing their investigation into the matter. They extorted amounts of Rs. 50,00,000/- cash 5 Million from each and took passports from the complainants to get work visas from the embassy.
Later on, the alleged persons did not fulfil commitment nor returned the amount. Assistant Director FIA Gujrat conducted a thorough inquiry into the complaints and found them substantial enough to launch FIRs and investigate the fraud.
He sent his report to Director FIA Gujranwala Zone for approval who gave consent on 17 Feb 2026 and accorded permission for registration of a case against the above-mentioned alleged persons.
As the embassy of any country is a protected area where Pakistani LEAs can not enter without permission of the ambassador, FIA issued summons to the accused on which they had to be present for inquiry and there they were arrested.
When this scribe brought this matter into the notice of Ambassador Bulgaria Ms Irena Gancheva, she replied , ” None of the currently employed local staff members of the Embassy is arrested.”
She is right because she was asked this question this week while the two accused brothers were detained 3 months ago and at that time they were the employees of Bulgaria Embassy but it is also mentionable here that the Ambassador too was the same Ms Irena Gancheva at that time.
It is quite possible that she did not know these two staff members because sometimes , especially in the case of big embassies, the ambassador does not know the whole staff working at the mission. The Bulgarian embassy is not that big.
FIA offloads Three Travelers from Gulf Air Flight for Cyprus
The story does not end here. Coming back to the arrest of agent Bashir from Gujrat, the action was conducted by the same officer who is investigating the cases of Bulgaria work visa fraud by two Christian brothers in Gujrat, the same circle but here no development in the investigation has been seen so far that is enough to raise questions on which way the law is going in these cases.
In the cases of Bulgaria visa fraud, the cell numbers of the complainants and the accused have been given in the FIRs. This scribe called on the numbers of the accused and found them off. Then called on the numbers of the victims and interestingly they too were off. Why are their numbers not responding? What is going on in these cases ? The high ups of FIA may find time to see into this mystery.
The number of persons in these cases under investigation is four. There are two other persons including a woman.
As far as the question about the accused in Bulgaria cases are/were staff members of the embassy or not the employees is concerned, the following points may be noted in this regard ;
1- No one can claim to get an EU country visa without any connection inside the embassy.
2- It is very easy for any office to issue termination letters in previous dates if any staff is involved in any crime.
3- The staff of Visa consul sections of some EU countries have been found involved in such activities in the past like the Italian embassy where one thousand visa stickers were missing from.
4- Corruption of staff of the Bulgaria embassy in vehicles and liqour has already been reported in the press in the past.
5- Bulgaria embassies have been in the news for the corrupt practices of not only the staff members but ambassadors themselves.
There are examples when ambassadors were recalled by their government from Pakistan and from another country. Therefore it would not be a big deal if not the ambassador but visa officer is involved in the cases mentioned above.
