51 thousand Pakistanis were expelled for begging abroad, most had reached Saudi Arabia.

This year, about 51 thousand Pakistanis have been deported from different countries on charges of begging. The maximum action was taken by Saudi Arabia, from where 24 thousand people were sent back on charges of begging. Apart from this, 6 thousand Pakistanis were evacuated from United Arab Emirates (UAE), 2,500 from Azerbaijan and thousands from other countries. This information came to light in the meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Rights Affairs.

Chairman of the committee, Agha Rafiullah said that many people were trying to reach Europe by traveling in the name of Umrah, but after getting concrete evidence, they were stopped on the way. This year 24 thousand people went to Cambodia, out of which 12 thousand have not returned yet. Similarly, 4 thousand people had gone to Myanmar on tourist visa, but 2,500 people did not return.

The number of people going to Europe illegally decreased

Director of FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) said that to stop illegal immigrants Pakistan Passport ranking of India has improved from 118 to 92. He said that earlier Pakistan was among the top 5 countries of the world in terms of illegal immigrants, but due to strict policies, now it has been out of this list. According to him, last year 8 thousand people went to Europe illegally, whereas this year this number has come down to 4 thousand.

FIA Director also said that till now 56 thousand Pakistanis have been expelled from Saudi Arabia on charges of begging. He said that Dubai and Germany have made Pakistan’s passport visa-free. The AMI application will be launched in January, through which citizens going abroad will be able to complete the online immigration process 24 hours before the journey.

2.2 crore beggars in Pakistan

Earlier in May, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif had said that the problem of begging has become serious, due to which it is becoming difficult for Pakistanis to get visas for other countries. He said that about 22 million people in Pakistan are involved in begging, which earns about Rs 42 billion annually.

In 2023, the then Foreign Secretary Zulfikar Haider had told in front of the Senate Committee that about 90 percent of the beggars caught abroad were Pakistani citizens, who were found begging in countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar and UAE.