Reports suggest that as many as 544,105 Pakistanis have been deported from different countries from 2012 to 2017 — 116,185 in the year 2015 alone. The majority has been deported from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which is often portrayed as our ‘brotherly Muslim state’. Most in Pakistan feel outraged when fellow Pakistanis are mistreated in western countries — and rightly so — but there is hardly any outrage when Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia face mistreatment at the hands of the Arab authorities. It will be hypocritical on our part if we call out western leaders for Islamophobia but we don’t say a word when Saudis practice racism — against fellow Muslims from Pakistan. It is not okay for any country hosting Pakistanis for work, education or other purposes to mistreat them. According to a number of reports, the majority of those deported from Saudi Arabia annually are Pakistanis. It goes without saying that overseas Pakistanis should refrain from involvement in illegal activities. At the same time, it is important to note the Saudi immigration laws are said to be discriminatory towards smaller countries and the Kingdom follows an authoritarian labour regime, denying migrant workers any legal recourse in the face of unfair treatment by employers or state officials. The government of Pakistan needs to pay attention to the plight of those who’ve moved overseas for livelihood opportunities not available to them in their home country. Those who migrate illegally and can find only low-paying jobs without any security are the most precarious in this regard. So far, the authorities have hardly taken any interest in the plight of this segment of Pakistanis in the Gulf states like the KSA. Just last year, there had been reports of Pakistani workers being forced to live under miserable conditions in KSA as their employers were not paying them salaries for several years. The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis needs to look into these increasing cases of deportations as well as of those suffering at the hands of the authoritarian labour regime in the Kingdom. Diplomatic channels ought to be used to ensure that Pakistanis are not been victimised because of their identity or occupation. * Published in Daily Times, September 25th 2017.