Pakistanis deported from various countries for different reasons will face strict action, including passport cancellation and police cases, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday, as part of a crackdown on international human trafficking rings tarnishing Pakistan’s image.
A decision to crack the whip on returning deportees was taken during a high-level meeting chaired by Naqvi in Islamabad. The move comes after Saudi Arabia deported over 5,000 Pakistani beggars in the past 16 months.
Naqvi shared this information with the National Assembly earlier this month in a written response to a question from Pakistan People’s Party MNA Sehar Kamran. Another 369 Pakistanis were caught begging in five other countries during the same period. In April alone, 106 Pakistanis deported from Europe arrived in Islamabad.
Last month, Naqvi had already announced that the government would block the passports of those deported and make it harder to issue new travel documents.
As per the minutes of the Saturday meeting, these individuals will also be placed on a passport watchlist for five years.
A committee headed by the interior secretary has been set up to review and strengthen passport regulations.
Naqvi said that the actions of these individuals were damaging Pakistan’s image internationally and that there would be no leniency going forward.
Pakistan has long struggled with organised begging rings, where entire families are coerced into earning daily quotas for exploitative contractors. But the international dimension of this crisis demands a serious legal consideration.
Human traffickers and shady agents prey on the desperation of people from economically marginalised backgrounds. They lure them to other countries with promises of jobs or better futures.
By the time these individuals arrive, their meagre savings are gone, the promised work is nowhere in sight, and they are left stranded, often criminalised for resorting to survival mechanisms like begging.
It must be noted that the government has taken some steps to prevent the outflow of such individuals, including improving immigration checks and placing nearly 4,000 people on the Exit Control List.
