Illegal stay: 110 Pakistanis deported from Saudi Arabia

They had travelled on genuine documents for Hajj and Umra.

ISLAMABAD: As many as 110 Pakistan nationals who were deported from Saudi Arabia due to expiry of their visas or because they had lost their passports have been handed over to their relatives, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials said.

“They reached Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore early this morning (Wednesday),” Deputy Director FIA immigration Azhar Mehmood told The Express Tribune.

The FIA officials said the deported Pakistanis travelled to Saudi Arabia for the sake of Hajj and Umra months or years back. Although they travelled on genuine visas yet they did not return to Pakistan. Their legal stay had ended as their visas had expired.

“All Pakistan nationals, who came from poor families, have been released after proper verification of their documents in light of the FIA immigration handbook,” Azhar Mehmood confirmed.Saudi police had arrested these individuals staying illegally and then handed them over to Pakistan immigration staff in Jeddah, he added.

Some of them were kept in prisons for months and later deported to their homeland. The Pakistan embassy in Saudi Arabia issued emergency passports to these individuals some days back, a senior official of the FIA revealed.

Some of them had been sent abroad illegally by travel agents, the officials further said, adding that with the co-operation of these deported individuals the FIA will launch a campaign to apprehend these agents. The officials further said that the deported persons were brought to Lahore through a special fight from Riyadh.

“Most of them were illegally residing in various cities of Saudi Arabia and involved in begging and other illegal businesses,” the airport immigration team further said and added, “Their visas had already expired months back.”

The immigration team verified the expired passports and visas through a computer system called the Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System (PISCES), Azhar Mehmood said.

“The PISCES allows the FIA to check the travelling documents of passengers in 21 different categories such as the authenticity of the photo or the visa,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2010.