DAWN today carried a story regarding the ordeal of an illegal immigrant about how

he was conned by a travel agent to cough out around Rs.300,000 to get him
illegally into Greece by travelling over land in Iran and Turkey and occasionally
on foot under gun fire.
http://dawn.com/2008/11/20/local2.htm

Earlier When I read such stories in newspapers I thought it only happened in rural
areas where these fraudulent agents deprive simple people of their hard earned
money against false promises of greener pastures. Then I met a travel agent in
business and financial district of Karachi and I realized that these parasites are
everywhere.

The story which follows is true without any modification of name or location.

In the year of our lord two thousand and three (i.e. 2003 AD) I was working in a
large local bank in corporate banking whereas my friend Waqar also worked in
Treasury department at the same bank (unnecessary details but give an aura of
authenticity to the story – not that its not). Our annual vacations were due and
we decided to go to Turkey for two weeks. Since Turkish embassy in Pakistan did
not maintain a website, we didn’t know where the consulate in Karachi was and what
documents are needed to apply for the visa. So we decided to approach one of the
travel agents that are ubiquitous around Chundrigar road.

On a warm rather hot summer afternoon, we walked over from Shaheen complex where I
worked to DWyne Travel Agency in Lakson Square. There were a few desks where
travel agents are supposed to sit but since it was a lazy afternoon they must have
taken the day off. Only one travel agent was seated at the far end of the office.
We approached him and asked him about the Turkish visa. He referred us to his boss
who was sitting in a larger office inside. We went into his office. Sitting behind
a glass covered large mahogany table on which were spread his bank statement and
credit card bills, he was talking to someone facing him who looked like one of the
mafia dons of the Indian variety wearing a gold chain quite a few rings in his
fingers smoking a cigarette. We told the boss that we want to travel to Turkey. He
asked the apparently Indian mafia guy to cater to us. The mafia guy, whose name I
forget, lets call him Asif after the greatest con man, escorted us out of this
office into his chamber.

Now once we are seated facing him in his chamber, he asked us why do we want to
travel to Turkey. I said tourism. He asked us again “be frank, why do you guys
want to travel to Turkey?”. Waqar replied that “we just told you. We want to go
there for sight seeing”. Asif the mafia man said, “don’t be upset. I can arrange
all kinds of travel. Just tell me honestly so that I can tell you the right way to
go about it”. We looked puzzled. So he proceeded that “if you guys want to enter
Greece, be honest, I can arrange that.”

I told him that “we work in a bank and we don’t need to enter anywhere”. He said,
“Don’t be offended. I am giving you all the options”. I don’t know why he didn’t
take us as professional bankers. May be because we were wearing casual clothes
(Saturdays were casual dress days). But I believe it was because Waqar was wearing
his imported genuine white Nike shoes over his dark blue genuine Dockers trousers.

A couple of weeks before it had been reported in the news that some Pakistani
illegal immigrants had been arrested after being recovered in inhumane conditions
in a container somewhere between Turkey and Greece. I told him “we don’t want to
go anywhere, we just want to go to turkey through official means and anyway
illegal immigration is not safe”. He said “Don’t worry about safety. Our methods
are tried and tested and we have transferred lot of people over the borders. You
won’t even have to pay now. Only once you have reached safely in Greece, then you
will have to pay”.

It was like we were speaking two different languages. We wanted to go to Turkey

and he kept sending us to Greece.

“If you want to go to France” he continued, “we will take you to Morocco and from
there depending upon the weather, tidal conditions, visibility at sea and
availability of high speed transport we will ferry you to France”. His best was
yet to come.

“And if you guys want to go to England, we will take you there via South Africa
but the visa on your passport will be of Mozambique. You have to stay in South
Africa for few days and when the conditions are appropriate, we will take you to
England”. He didn’t elaborate on what he meant by appropriate conditions. I was
flabbergasted.

Waqar mustered up the courage to ask him “what if we want to travel to Egypt?” He
said “Egypt? Why Egypt? Which country borders Egypt?” Waqar said “to see the
pyramids”. “Oh the pyramids…” we can tell that he was disappointed.

By this time all of us were exhausted. We, because he kept selling all those
countries to us; he, because we were not at all interested in his adventurous
plans.

Finally I asked him “Lets say we just want you to arrange a visa to Turkey. What
documents are required and what are the charges”. He said “since you guys work in
a bank, you can easily arrange fake bank statements. And visa charges would be
rupees 60,000”. We were stunned.

We thanked him and without going to any other travel agent went straight to home.
Next week, our friend referred us to his travel agent. He arranged the visa
against our original meagre bank balances in couple of days for Rs.1200 each ( of
which Rs.1100 were Turkish visa fees). And we completed the whole trip days in
less than Rupees 60,000 per person including air ticket.

PS: The above story is 100% true except for the part about white sneakers.