Saudi Arabia deports 140 Pakistanis over 'illegal activities'

MULTAN: Saudi Arabia on Saturday deported 140 Pakistanis from the kingdom over their alleged involvement in criminal and illegal activities, ARY NEWS reported citing sources.

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.

In a similar action a year back, as many as 140 Pakistani immigrants, a majority of whom were ‘overstaying’, were deported by Saudi Arabia and arrived at Islamabad International Airport in September 2019.

After the verification process and initial investigations, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) permitted 100 deportees to go to their homes, whereas, the remaining nationals were shifted to anti-human smuggling cell for further investigation, said sources.

The sources said that the rest of the 40 deportees would be released soon.