GUJRAT: At least 36 passengers were offloaded from different international flights and around 20 passengers who were deported from different countries, arrived at Sialkot International Airport during the last 24 hours.

A senior official told Dawn that most of the deportees had arrived from Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Oman as well as an African country namely Swaziland.

These deportees, he said, were deported after remaining in prisons, being overstayed, bad profiling and other such basis.

He said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) immigration authorities, however, released all these deportees after necessary questioning and

profiling, lack of supporting documents, having record of being deportee.

Similarly at least 36 passengers were offloaded from different flights due to different reasons.

It is learnt that the deportees and offloaded passengers were mainly belonged to Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot, Mandi Bahauddin, Jhelum, Hafizabad, Bahawalnagar, Lodhran, Rawalpindi and Okara cities.

The majority of offloaded passengers were going to Saudi Arabia whereas several others had a destination of the UK, Oman, Spain, and Bahrain.

The immigration authorities have imposed a stricter scrutiny of travel documents of passengers traveling towards at least 15 different countries as well as those belonging to the districts of central and south Punjab.

The tough scrutiny is being done to curb the menace of beggary and human trafficking causing a great deal of inconvenience to the genuine travellers particularly the students, Umrah pilgrims and those having visit visas.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2025