Members of a human trafficking gang who smuggled people from Iran to Basra, Iraq, have been identified and arrested.
This was announced by Col. Nader Assadollahi, commander of the Sea-Watch station in Abadan, Khuzistan.
Abadan, in southwestern Iran, has 100 kilometers of common border with Basra.
Earlier, Ali Sadeghi, head of the State Security Force’s immigration police and passport bureau, said he would not deny that Iranian women and girls are being trafficked to Arab countries. He said most of these people are ostensibly transferred as work force.
Massive unemployment in Iran and ruined economy have forced many Iranians to leave the country in search of jobs in the Gulf or East Asian countries as well as the war-torn Iraq.
(State-run IRNA news agency, October 20, 2015)
