RIYADH, 4 September 2005 — The Pakistani Embassy is seeking assistance from the Saudi and Pakistani governments to identify nationals overstaying in the Kingdom after entering the country on Haj and Umrah visas.
The embassy has not ruled out the possible involvement of immigration officials and tour operators who facilitate the entry of thousands of Pakistanis to the Kingdom, especially during Ramadan and Haj, in order to beg.
Pakistani Ambassador Abdul Aziz Mirza said: “I have written to Islamabad to take stringent measures to discourage people who come on Umrah visas and stay beyond the expiry of the visa. I have also offered to provide interpreters at airports to help in identifying such people,” said Mirza.
He said that the size of the problem was evident from the fact that some 13,500 Pakistanis who had overstayed their Umrah visas were deported from January to June this year. And according to a statement made by Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, more than 51,000 Pakistanis have been deported from Saudi Arabia during the last two years. Of that number, the overwhelming majority have been overstayers.
Last week, 136 Pakistanis were deported and most of them were Umrah overstayers.
“I suspect that Umrah operators are involved in the racket. I also suspect the complicity of immigration officials ... it is indeed alarming,” the envoy said.
He said in many instances, children abducted from different parts of the country were flown forcibly to the Kingdom to work as beggars.
More than 250,000 Pakistanis visit Saudi Arabia for Umrah every year.
