250,000 Pakistanis deported during 2012-15

ISLAMABAD - Nearly 250,000 Pakistani migrants were deported, mostly from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, during 2012-2015, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) statistics revealed on Saturday.

According to the ‘Labour Migration from Pakistan: 2015 Status Report’ through Deportation Statistics acquired by the FIA, a total of 242,817 irregular Pakistani migrants were deported between 2012 and 2015. Majority of the irregular migrants (131,643) were deported from Saudi Arabia, followed by the United Arab Emirates (32,458), Iran (28,684), Oman (17,248), Greece (14,145), the United Kingdom (9,778) and Malaysia (8,861) during the three-year period.

The number of deportees was greatest in the year 2014 (73,064) and smallest during the year 2010 (46,032).

Most of the individuals deported from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates were job seekers and businessmen and those deported from Iran were in transit to Greece.

Deportations from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries were attributed mainly to security-related issues, the report revealed.

These statistics suggest that deportation is continuing to increase and these trends might be indicative of an increase in the trafficking of persons and the smuggling of migrants.

A study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found that the majority of irregular migration involved migrants originating from the Punjab province, especially from Gujrat, Gujranwala, Mandi Bahauddin, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan and Sialkot districts.

The report said that around 513,231 individuals were deported from different countries during the year 2007 to June 2015, registering a year-wise upward trend.

From 2005-06 to 2014-15 around 932,051 migrant workers were stranded in destination countries due to lack of proper documentation and thus deported.

The largest number of stranded Pakistanis (882,887) were deported from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia followed by Doha, Qatar (4,200).-APP