MINUTES OF NIOC’S 43rd ADVISORY BOARD MEETING

NIOC 43rd Advisory Board Meeting was held online on Thursday 22 June 2023. The following participated: Tariq Parvez, Zahid Hussain and Zubair Habib. Samina Ahmed, Manzoor Ahmad and Jawaid Akhtar could not attend. NIOC directorate was represented by Tariq Khosa, Sarmad Saeed, Kaleem Imam, Nawaz Nadeem and Hassan Sardar.

The main agenda items discussed were challenges posed by Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons, especially the recent boat tragedy near Greece that resulted in the death of hundreds of illegal immigrants. The following recommendations were made:

1) Government of Pakistan should ratify UNTOC Protocol on Smuggling of Migrants.

2) An Action Plan is urgently required to address the issues of Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons.

3) CGR-NIOC will soon release a Position Paper on SOMs and TIPs.

A south-south intercontinental dialogue will be held between the NGOs of Kenya and Pakistan to share experiences on the UNTOC Review Processes and Pilot Initiatives launched by Pakistan in September 2022 and one to be launched by Kenya in August 2023.