Daily Times

The government has so far repatriated more than 61,000 stranded Pakistanis from 50 countries, with thousands still stuck at the foreign shores, looking for their return amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Nevertheless, the evacuation of such a large number of stranded nationals is a feather in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government’s cap, which took lead in launching the world’s largest repatriation operation soon after the imposition of travel restrictions worldwide to curb the coronavirus spread.

As of June 8, at least 61,165 Pakistanis were brought to the country via air and land routes, said a document shared by the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OP&HRD) on Wednesday.

Out of total, 56,836 were brought to the country through special flights, whereas repatriation of 4,329 Pakistanis was done via land borders of India, Afghanistan and Iran.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries remained a main focus for the government where a whooping number of expats were still stuck due to limited number of flights operated by Pakistan. Some 23,889 were evacuated from the United Arab Emirates, followed by Saudi Arabia from where some 7,428 citizens brought back to the country.

Similarly, 4,156 were repatriated form Qatar, 4,301 form the United Kingdom, 2,987 from Afghanistan (via land route), 2,956 Oman, 1,159 Malaysia, 1,349 the United States of America, 924 Iran (via land route) and 418 from India (via land route).

Multiple countries such as Australia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Canada, China, Congo, Egypt, Germany, Iraq, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Maldives, Norway, South Africa, Somalia Sri Lanka, Sudan Turkey, Thailand, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan were also among others from where a number of stranded nationals were airlifted by the government.

The repatriated nationals also included Tablighis (2,018), Prisoners/ Detainees (1,712) and Zaireen (1,326). The repatriation process would last till the return of all stranded citizens, an official of the OP&HRD ministry told APP, pointing out the gradual increase in repatriation flights. He said the government would airlift over 10,500 stranded Pakistanis from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week (June 7 to June 15) by operating 46 special flights under the world’s largest repatriation operation.

More than 20 flights would be operated for bringing over 5,000 stranded nationals to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia, he added. He pointed out that repatriation operation of the expats would continue in phases.”Laid off Pakistani workers, students and people with expired visas are given top priority during the repatriation process,” the official added. He said around 2,500 stranded citizens would be evacuated from Qatar via 10 special flights, to be operated between June 7 to June 15. To a query he said, all the passengers were being tested at the country’s airports.

Meanwhile, the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) Wednesday said it had been conducting regular online interaction with the host countries’ relevant officials to resolves the Pakistani expatriates’ issues, besides providing them relief amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“The online interactions with the relevant officials of foreign countries are being held with the help of the Community Welfare Attachees and Pakistan’s mission abroad,” an official in the OPF said.

He said most of the time contact was made with the relevant officials of the Middle Eastern Countries, where a large number of Pakistanis had been facing multiple issues. he official pointed out that the OPF had also been holding webinars with the Pakistani community in different countries to ascertain their problems. All-out efforts were being made to redress the expats issues in effective manner.

He said focal person had been nominated in the United Arab Emirates for coordination with Embassies/Consulate Generals to arrange food, health, accommodation and other facilities for jobless Pakistani workers and prisoners. The official said an emergency cell had been set up at the OPF headquarters to facilitate the Pakistani expatriates and their families amid the coronavirus crisis across the globe. The cell, established some three months ago, had been working round the clock to render best possible assistance to the expats and their families amid the pandemic, he added.