A Pakistani man has been arrested in Sydney after allegedly tricking his wife and Australian-born child into travelling back to Pakistan and stranding them there.
The Australian Federal Police allege the husband, 45, took his one-year-old’s passport on arrival in August 2024 and abandoned them both at the airport before returning to Australia alone later that month.
In November that year he allegedly fraudulently cancelled his wife’s Australian visa and kept his son’s passport, but she managed to return to Australia in February and made a police report.
The child, who is an Australian citizen, was then returned to Australia with the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the AFP said.
AFP investigators on Wednesday carried out a search warrant at a home in Austral, in Sydney’s southwest, where the man was arrested and later charged with two counts of trafficking a person from Australia by using deception, and dealing with identification information involving the use of a carriage service.
The human trafficking offence carries a maximum penalty of 12 years in jail.
AFP Detective Acting Superintendent Luke Needham said the allegations could be described as “exit trafficking” and said police believed similar offences were going unreported.
“Carrying out actions to force or encourage someone to travel overseas and then impede their ability to return to Australia can be a serious criminal offence, and the AFP will not hesitate to act when we have evidence of criminal actions,” he said.
“Exit trafficking offences quite often occur within family units or in situations where close relationships have disintegrated, and there is a concern these types of offences are under-reported in Australia.”
Header image: Left, right, the man being arrested (AFP).
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