By Umair Jamal
Pakistan’s reputation as a source of illegal economic migrants demands government scrutiny.
A few weeks ago, Pakistan refused to accept more than 30 deported migrants from Greece and eventually sent them back on the same plane. This week, Turkey deported four Pakistani migrants. At least 90,000 Pakistani refugees, who had travelled illegally, were sent back last year.
Many deportations have been linked with terrorism. A month ago, Italy forcefully sent back a Pakistani citizen by alleging that he was involved in the Peshawar school attack, which killed more than 140 school children last year. In the latest flare up of tensions between the Islamabad and the European Union, Pakistan’s interior minister temporarily suspended an expatriation agreement with the EU.
Europe has been struggling to deal with one of the largest migrant crisis since the Second World War. Conflict and war in the Middle East has had a direct impact on Europe. In Syria, the situation has become so critical that hundreds of thousands of families have been forced to leave the country. With no final resolution to the crisis in sight, Syria in the near future may become a state with no remaining non-combatant population. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, almost one million people, fleeing these conflict zones–mainly from the Middle East–have reached European shores in 2015.
Underneath this complicated situation, a dangerous trend has been on rise. The number of Pakistanis who have in the last few month sought to travel to Europe through illicit channels has risen. According to some released data by the EU, between 2010 and 2014, more than 14,000 Pakistanis crossed into Europe illegally every year. A month ago, hundreds of Pakistani refugees travelling with other migrants from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan clashed with the Macedonian police at the Greco-Macedonian border. Reportedly, they later blocked the passage for Syrians and others refugees while chanting “If we don’t cross, no one does!”
Read the full story at The Diplomat