EDITORIAL: The government’s move to cancel the passports of deported Pakistani nationals and register criminal cases against them marks a long-overdue shift in policy.
It’s a necessary, if uncomfortable, acknowledgement that certain behaviours by citizens abroad have begun to inflict reputational and diplomatic harm on the state itself. That over 5,000 Pakistanis deported from Saudi Arabia for begging—and hundreds more from other countries—is a grim reality.
It represents not just individual failings but a systemic breakdown in regulation, enforcement, and accountability.
What’s at stake here is not mere embarrassment. These individuals violate immigration laws, abuse host-country systems, and in doing so, compromise the credibility of Pakistani passport holders globally.
For every person sent home for illegal activity, there are consequences for thousands of others who travel abroad for legitimate reasons — workers, students and professionals. Increased scrutiny at airports, tighter visa controls, and harsher immigration policies for Pakistanis are already becoming routine. That reality stems in part from the conduct of these deportees.
It is important to be clear: this is not a blanket indictment of the poor or the desperate. Poverty explains much, but it cannot excuse participation in organised cross-border misconduct. Nor should any country be expected to shield its citizens from legal consequences when they flout the laws of other nations. The state’s primary obligation is to protect its reputation and the rights of law-abiding citizens—at home and abroad.
But any serious effort to deal with the problem must also account for the network of exploitation that enables it. The people being deported did not end up in foreign countries by accident.
In most cases, they were misled, manipulated, and financially exploited by travel agents, human smugglers, and fraudulent visa brokers. These operators sell illusions of overseas prosperity, take payments often sourced from loans or the sale of assets, and then disappear once the individual is on foreign soil.
These networks are not new. They flourish in regions of the country where opportunity is scarce and regulation looser still. What is new is the political will to confront the issue from both ends: punishing those who violate international norms and dismantling the domestic infrastructure that profits from sending them out.
The formation of a committee to reform passport issuance procedures and enforce tighter controls is a start—but enforcement must reach beyond paperwork.
In this context, the interior ministry’s stated intent to not only cancel passports but file FIRs against deportees must be seen as a signal, not a publicity stunt. If applied fairly and consistently, it could act as a deterrent against future violations. But for it to be credible, the crackdown must extend to the facilitators — those who promise jobs abroad, fabricate documents, and extract heavy payments in the name of opportunity.
There is no quick fix here. Deportations will likely continue. But the response must evolve from reactive to preventive.
The reputational cost of doing nothing has become too high. Foreign governments are already tracking the data. Pakistan must now show that it is doing the same—and that it is prepared to act, decisively, when its passport is used to game another country’s laws.
Those who exploit our travel documents to break foreign laws, and those who send them on their way, both deserve the full weight of the law. If Pakistan expects to be treated with respect abroad, it must begin by demanding responsibility at home.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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