RIYADH, 9 July 2006 — Pakistan has decided to impose tighter restrictions on the entry of Pakistani pilgrims into Saudi Arabia to boost Saudi efforts to identify suspected overstayers. Many pilgrims on Haj or Umrah visas stay on illegally beyond their visa authorization.

A monitoring system, currently being devised by the Pakistani government, will be in place shortly to discourage this practice of overstaying.

“The details of the monitoring system has not been made available to the Pakistan Embassy so far,” said a Pakistani diplomat, when asked about the features of the new system. But, this action by the Pakistani government has been welcomed by the Saudi side. In fact, the decision to launch a monitoring system was taken after Islamabad received many reports of Pakistani nationals staying on illegally after performing religious rituals.

The announcement to introduce the monitoring system was made yesterday following talks between Pakistani Religious Affairs Minister Ejazul Haq and Saudi Ambassador Ali Awad Al-Aseeri in Islamabad.

The Saudi authorities deported some 25,000 Pakistanis over the past 18 months who had stayed illegally in the Kingdom beyond their Umrah visa authorization.

Asked about the new move, Masood Akhtar, consul general, said yesterday that “several measures had been taken to check the practice of overstaying in the past.”

To a question about the plan to deploy some Pakistani interpreters to identify suspected pilgrims on entry points, Akhtar said that there were Pakistanis working for Saudi Arabian Airlines and in other government agencies, who could work as translators in handling such cases.

Asked about the decision of the Pakistani government to tighten restrictions, Ghulam Fareed Farrukh, deputy chief of Pakistani mission, refused to comment, saying that the details of the proposed monitoring system have not been received by the mission.

He, however, said that “it was a serious issue related to the religious faith of the people.”

Also, the Kingdom has said that it would consider lifting restrictions on Pakistani citizens if the system produced results to check pilgrims’ illegal stay.

The Saudi envoy said in Islamabad “his government would consider lifting of restrictions on Pakistani citizens only if the proposed monitoring system produced results to check pilgrims’ illegal stay in the Kingdom.”

The Pakistani government has also taken other steps unilaterally to stop the practice of illegal immigration to the countries in the Gulf including Saudi Arabia.

It has registered cases against 854 manpower agents and many of them have been arrested on charges of human trafficking.

These agents have also been facilitating travel of some Pakistani women and children to work as illegal workers or even beggers in the Kingdom especially during the month of Ramadan. More than 250,000 Pakistanis visit Saudi Arabia for Umrah annually .

A large number of pilgrims from other Asian and African countries besides Pakistan have been overstaying in the Kingdom. That is why, Saudi Arabia has tightened entry restrictions for citizens from many countries including Pakistan, India, Egypt, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Somalia, Chad and Sudan.

Under new rules, no married pilgrim under the age of 40 would be allowed to travel alone to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah.