Trafficked Pakistani female doctor reunites with family

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Afghan government rescued a Pakistani female doctor from her captor and reunited her with family four months after Pajhwok Afghan News published a report about the victim.

The woman had been brought to southern Helmand province from Pakistan by a local doctor using fake documents.

The female doctor had told Pajhwok that she was deceived by the local colleague after bringing her from Pakistan to Helmand.

She had accused the local doctor of earning money from her services in his private clinic besides sexually assaulting her several times. Complete report here.

After Pajhwok published the report, the president of Afghanistan tasked a team with following the issue. The team brought the woman from Helmand to Kabul and kept her in a shelter house for some time.

The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) head for Helmand province, Afifa Maruf, on Monday told Pajhwok: “I often visit the Helmand jail, but I did not see this woman, she is possibly sent somewhere else.”

Helmand jail director, Raz Mohammad, also confirmed to Pajhwok that the Pakistani doctor had been transferred from the jail from long time ago.

“Possibly the doctor is sent back to Pakistan and reunited with her family,” he said.

Jamshid Rasouli, spokesman for the Attorney General Office (AGO), told Pajhwok that the case had been with the AGO for investigation.

After investigation, the case was handed over to the primary court which sentenced the Helmand doctor to 15 years in jail on human trafficking charges, he added.

However, the appellate court reduced his jail term to three years under migrants trafficking crimes, he said.

Rasouli said the AGO was not convinced after different courts awarded different jail terms to the local doctor, therefore the case was sent to the Supreme Court.

He did not provide more details, but said the Pakistani doctor had been sent to her family and she was currently in Pakistan.

The Pakistani Embassy in Kabul in a statement said they were not aware about the case.

The statement said the Afghan Foreign Ministry had been asked twice about the case, but it did not provide information to the embassy.

Article three of the Combating Human and Migrant Trafficking law says recruiting (bringing under control) someone, transferring, threatening or using force against someone for benefit, kidnapping and deceiving are types of human trafficking in person.

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