70 Illegal Pakistani Nationals to be Deported from the United States

The United States is deporting more than 70 ‘illegal’ Pakistani nationals living in the country for years. Pakistan has confirmed that they will bring back the Pakistani nationals to the country in a special chartered plane.

Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that all the individuals were detained and prosecuted in the United States for violating criminal conduct, immigration laws and other serious charges.

He said, “The United States is going to deport more than 70 illegal Pakistanis. Pakistan has asked the United States to fulfill all the legal requirements about the Pakistanis being deported. The Pakistani nationals will return to the country via a special charter plane tomorrow”.

There was news of visa restrictions on Pakistan by the US, which is declined by Qureshi but has acknowledged that three Pakistani government officials have been banned from travelling to the US by the Trump administration.

He further said, “The US has banned visit visa for three officials due to some reasons. The official include a joint secretary, an additional secretary interior and DG passport. This restriction is not on Pakistan and both the sides have given the clarification for this. The foreign ministry will only issue equal number of visas as the US does”.

The decision to deport the Pakistani nationals came after a series of warning that is issued since last month. The imposed visa sanction policy also withholds visas of not only the ordinary travellers but also several Pakistani senior officials.

Thus Pakistan is the latest to join the list of 10 countries that are facing similar sanctions by the US, under a law according to which countries who refuse to take back the deportees and those who overstayed visa could be denied America visas in future.

Though the US State Department had not clarified to what extent these sanctions will be there. A senior Pakistani official at the embassy said that the discussions to resolve the matter are going on but claimed that the reports of sanctions are misleading. He said, “Visa matters are dealt with on the basis of reciprocity”, adding that both the countries remain engaged in talks to refine the visa-related policies.

The official also claimed that no such sanctions have been imposed on Pakistan as yet, as the matter is about some individuals and both sides had clarified their positions and since then they have been in discussions to resolve the issue as early as possible.