By Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has encountered a troubling pattern of flight attendant going missing upon arrival in Canada.
Recent reports indicate that a PIA flight attendant was apprehended in Toronto, Canada, for possessing multiple passports, according to a report by the local Pakistani news channel ARY News. This incident adds to the growing concern as several PIA flight attendants have reportedly vanished in Canada in recent times.
The detained flight attendant, Hina Sani, arrived in Toronto on Flight PK789 from Lahore on March 28, 2024. Upon landing, Canadian authorities detained her at YYZ Airport, where allegedly unrelated passports were discovered in her baggage. This isn’t the first time concerns have been raised about Sani’s conduct, as she had previously faced warnings for attempting to carry prohibited items into Canada.
This occurrence is part of a broader trend, with PIA crew members abandoning their posts in foreign countries since at least 2019. In January 2024, another PIA flight attendant, Faiza Mukhtar, went missing in Canada after operating flight PK781 from Islamabad to Toronto. Similar incidents occurred in 2023, with several flight attendants disappearing after landing in Canada.
Various factors, including low wages, apprehensions about the airline’s privatization, and Canada’s asylum policies, are believed to contribute to these disappearances. Despite PIA’s efforts to address the issue by implementing measures such as raising the minimum age for flight attendants traveling to Canada and establishing a special investigation unit, the problem persists.
Interestingly, speaking with The Media Line, the airline’s spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan has attributed these disappearances to Canada’s lenient immigration policies and liberal asylum procedures, stressing:
There is no failure (on the part of the airline) as we have tried to put in the most stringent possible efforts to curtail that. However, the laws of Canada are so liberal that those measures become counter-effective.
The situation raises questions about the effectiveness of current measures and the broader implications of Canada’s immigration policies.
