Pakistan To Send Unverified Deportees Back To Greece: Nisar

The plane, with the 30 remaining immigrants on board, was sent back to Athens following four hours of talks between Greek embassy officials and the Pakistani authorities at Islamabad airport.

The remaining 30 deportees were sent back to the Greece through the same flight, the interior ministry statement said.

On the other hand, Yannis Mouzalas, Greece’s Migration Minister, told reporters that European Union must be able to persuade Pakistan to accept returnees, as Greece is already under pressure to directly deport migrants arriving from Turkey.

Pakistan is one of the top countries of origin of illegal migrants to Europe, according to statistical institute Eurostat.

He then continued, “if that happens they will be sent back despite having agreed on all issues in a recent meeting with the EU migration commissioner, one European country is violating Pakistani law, which is unacceptable”.

“This [CNIC] requirement is not part of the EU – Pakistan Readmission Agreement, which refers to travel documents issued by Pakistani authorities”, the statement added.

The interior ministry has informed all the Pakistani missions overseas to demand evidence when host countries seek to deport any Pakistani citizen on the charge of any criminal or terrorist activity.

The charter plane later took off with the 30 still aboard, though others that Pakistan deemed legitimate deportees were allowed to disembark.

The EU representative office in Pakistan, was perplexed at the move.

The Ministry of Interior had also sent a letter to Canadian High Commission on December 2, for sending Pakistan deportees in violation of global law. In a statement, it said that Pakistan had initially been communicated a list with 61 names from three European countries.

A few weeks ago, Interior Minister Ch Nisar while suspending the re-admission treaty had said Pakistan will not accept any deportee without verification of its Pakistani citizenship.

“Obviously EU member states do not have access to this internal information [Nadra records of CNICs] – only Pakistan has that”. He had announced that around 90,000 people were deported to Pakistan only this year (2015).

Media reports say that Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had taken the notice of allowing the charted plane to land on airport with out prior permission. The ministry made it clear that the government would not allow any undocumented person to enter the country.