ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi warned that people with incomplete travel documents and professional beggars won’t be allowed to travel abroad, state media reported on Sunday, as reports emerge of passengers being offloaded at various airports across the country.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said earlier this week that over 66,000 passengers had been offloaded from Pakistani airports this year over suspected irregular travel, while tens of thousands were deported from Gulf states and other countries amid a broader crackdown on illegal migration.
Pakistan has intensified its crackdown on illegal migration after 2023 when hundreds of people, including its own nationals, died while attempting to cross the Mediterranean in an overcrowded fishing vessel that sank off the Greek coast, prompting widespread outrage and scrutiny of smuggling networks. Islamabad has also recently dealt with several cases of Pakistani citizens misusing their Umrah visas to beg for money in Saudi Arabia.
“Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi says professional beggars and people traveling with incomplete documents will not be allowed to go abroad” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
