CAA allows Greece flight carrying deported Pakistanis to land at Islamabad airport    

KARACHI: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has allowed a chartered flight from Greece carrying deported Pakistanis to land at Islamabad International Airport on Wednesday (today), ARY NEWS reported.

According to details, besides carrying the Pakistani passengers, the flight would also accompany police officials of Greece and medical staff.

The flight was allowed to land after the foreign ministry on a request from the Embassy of Greece asked the CAA to allow the flight to land on Pakistani soil.

The director of air transport of the CAA approved a NOC for the flight, directing those onboard the flight to strictly follow COVID-19 SOPs.

The staff of the airline would not be allowed to land at the Islamabad airport under COVID-19 SOPs, besides only 30 Pakistanis who were deported and allowed by the foreign ministry to be repatriated to Pakistan will land at the airport.

Any other passenger would be deported back to Greece by the FIA authorities.

In a similar case recently, Saudi Arabia deported 140 Pakistanis from the kingdom over their alleged involvement in criminal and illegal activities.

According to sources, the passengers arrived in Saudi Arabia but were not allowed by the immigration authorities to proceed further after it emerged that they were allegedly involved in illegal activities.

The passengers were then deported and were brought back to the Multan International Airport via Saudi Airline flight.

The passengers later staged a protest over the deportation and also had exchanged heated arguments with officials at the Multan airport. They demanded of the government to take notice of the matter.