By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have offloaded more than 66,000 passengers from international flights this year, nearly double the number from 2024, as part of an intensified crackdown on illegal migration and document fraud, officials disclosed on Wednesday during a parliamentary committee hearing.
The surge, which has drawn complaints from travellers holding what they described as valid documents, stems from heightened scrutiny following a deadly boat capsizing off Greece last year that killed several Pakistanis and prompted a nationwide effort to curb smuggling networks.
During the session of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, chaired by Syed Rafiullah, the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency, Riffat Mukhtar Raja, outlined the measures behind the increase, from 35,000 offloadings last year to 66,154 so far in 2025.
“Passengers are offloaded on the basis of document verification, data checks, and online authentication,” Raja said, adding that roughly 51,000 of those stopped by his agency lacked sufficient or verified paperwork. Many, he explained, arrived with incomplete details about their intended courses of study, universities or jobs abroad, often arranged through agents providing faulty information. The majority held visas for visits, religious pilgrimages like Umrah or work. “In many cases, passengers attempt to travel through agents using incomplete or incorrect information,” Raja told the panel.
To bolster controls, all major airports have been linked to the national identity database run by the National Database and Registration Authority, known as NADRA. Cameras now monitor immigration counters from central headquarters, and artificial intelligence flags suspicious cases in advance. “No passenger was cleared under political influence or VIP pressure,” Raja stressed.
The agency has also dismissed 180 officials implicated in corruption and registered 226 cases for immigration-related offences amid 8.5 million outbound trips from Pakistan this year. Beyond airports, enforcement has targeted land borders and transnational schemes. Over the past three months, 450 people were arrested while trying to slip illegally into Iran, Raja said. Bangladeshi nationals have been intercepted using Pakistani tourist visas as a steppingstone to Europe, he added.
Deportations for fake documents numbered 287 last year and 170 in 2025, while Saudi Arabia sent back 56,000 Pakistanis accused of organised begging, often after exploiting Umrah visas. Growing restrictions from the United Arab Emirates and emerging routes through Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia, including Cambodia and Thailand, have fueled the offloadings, Raja said. “The surge in offloading is a countermeasure against fraudulent migration rings,” he told the committee.
The hearing unfolded against a backdrop of public outcry over the practice. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif this month established a 14-member investigative committee, led by the federal minister for overseas Pakistanis, to examine the reports and recommend streamlined procedures.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, speaking earlier this month, vowed that “no passenger with complete travel documents is being stopped from travelling, and they will not be stopped.” But he warned that those with “incomplete or bogus documents will definitely not be allowed to travel.” “No passenger who brings disrepute to the country can be allowed to travel,” Naqvi said, according to state broadcaster PTV News.
In November, the Federal Investigation Agency clarified that offloadings targeted only those without valid papers or suspected of ties to smugglers, and it pursued legal action against social media users spreading what it called fabricated claims. Committee members pressed for safeguards against overreach.
Rafiullah, the chairman, called for a “mechanism and SOP for redressal of Pakistanis offloaded incorrectly,” warning that “enforcement without an accessible remedy damages both people and reputation.” The panel instructed the Interior Ministry, the agency and the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis to post standard operating procedures and complaint channels at all airport immigration desks.
Officials described new tools in development, including a risk-analysis unit and a mobile app called IMMI for pre-departure screening and real-time oversight. Members urged linking agency systems with the E-Protector platform to verify documents and complete “ok-to-board” checks before travellers arrive at airports.
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