Islamabad: Saudi Arabia has deported a total of 5,033 Pakistani beggars, while another 369 people have been arrested for begging in five other countries in the last 16 months.
This information was presented to the National Assembly by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, on Wednesday in a written answer to a question asked by the Popular Pakistan Party (PPP) MNA Sehar Kamran.
The official data provided by the Minister show that a total of 5,402 Pakistani have been deported from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (EAU) since January 2024. Until the 4,850 national Pakistani nationals faced the deportation of these countries in the year 2024, so they have returned this year to Pakistan
The interrogator has sought data for the last three years, but the minister provided details of the period as of January 2024.
Other 369 people trapped by begging in five other countries; Almost 52pc deported belong to Sindh; Pakistan has expelled more than one million illegal Afghan
Interestingly, the rupture of the data regarding the province shows that most of those deported in these countries belong to the province of Sindh. A total of 2,795 people in the province are among the deportees of these countries on begging positions, while the number of these people belonging to Punjab is 1,437.
According to statistics, up to 1,002 people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 125 of Baluchistan, 33 of Kashmir and 10 of Islamabad are among those deported in the six countries.
After Saudi Arabia, the largest number of 247 Pakistani has been repatriated from Iraq. The EAU, who raised the problem with the Pakistan government more vigorously and imposed strict restrictions on visas for Pakistani citizens, has so far deported 58 people of this type during this period.
Afghan refugees
In response to another question. (IFRP).
“The IFRP has been approved by the Federal Government. Each sovereign State retains the right to deport illegal foreigners to safeguard their borders and national security.
In addition, there are no international legal implications for Pakistan, since it is not a signatory of the UNHCR Refugee Convention of 1951 or its 1967 protocol with respect to the Afghan repatriation, “says the minister in his written response. He said that Pakistan did not intend to extend the duration of the owners of ACC for one more period.
In addition, he said that 1,377 million Afghan refugees, who have for (registration test) had been repatriated to Afghanistan through the UNHCR repatriation program since 2007.
He said there were 813,146 Afghan with ACC and 1,304 million holders of Pakistan today.
Posted in Dawn, May 15, 2025
