KARACHI: Iran on Sunday handed over 102 Pakistani nationals to authorities along the Taftan border, in the Balochistan province, officials said on Monday.
Those deported were immigrants without valid documentation, Akram Baloch, a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official in Taftan, told Arab News. “Initial interrogations suggest they were not going to Europe. Their destination was Iran,” he said, adding that the FIA is investigating the incident.
Jawad Khan, deputy director of FIA’s immigration cell in Quetta, confirmed to Arab News that all the accused are now in the custody of the FIA and have been booked under the passport act of 1974. “After initial investigations the accused will be produced before the court,” Khan said, adding that the court usually sets the accused free after imposing a fine.
Taking advantage of the 909-kilometer route bordering Pakistan with Iran, agents traffic aspirants to either Europe or Iran via Turkey. “Every year, thousands of Pakistanis make failed attempts to enter different countries of Europe via Iran and Turkey for better job opportunities. Almost 90 percent of those arrested belong to the Gujarat, Sialkot and Mandi Bahauddin districts of the Punjab province,” Khan said, adding that a majority of them are sent back after being arrested at the border.
Among those arrested on Sunday include ones looking to relocate to Iran, he said.
Earlier this year, the bodies of two Pakistani nationals were handed over to the authorities on April 17. Shahzeb Khan and Muhammad Sadiq, from the Bannu district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, were killed by Iranian security forces when they, along with five others, tried to enter Iranian territory from the Balochistan side, FIA official Asif Naeem told Arab News.
The rest of the members from the group were arrested.
Iran deports 102 illegal migrants from Pakistan
Iran deports 102 illegal migrants from Pakistan
- Most were Pakistanis from Punjab province, officials say
- Human traffickers send thousands to Europe and Iran each year
Rating firm S&P says it won’t rush Iran war downgrades, sees risks for countries like Pakistan
- Agency says it is monitoring indebted energy importers as higher oil prices strain finances
- Gulf economies seen better placed to weather shock, though Bahrain flagged as vulnerable
LONDON: S&P Global said it would not make any knee-jerk sovereign rating cuts following the outbreak of war in the Middle East, but warned on Thursday that soaring oil and gas prices were putting a number of already cash-strapped countries at risk.
The firm’s top analysts said in a webinar that the conflict, which has involved US and Israeli strikes against Iran and Iranian strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states, was now moving from a low- to moderate-risk scenario.
Most Gulf countries had enough fiscal buffers, however, to weather the crisis for a while, with more lowly rated Bahrain the only clear exception.
Qatar’s banking sector could also struggle if there were significant deposit outflows in reaction to the conflict, although there was no evidence of such strains at the moment, they said.
“We don’t want to jump the gun and just say things are bad,” S&P’s head global sovereign analyst, Roberto Sifon-Arevalo, said.
The longer the crisis was prolonged, though, “the more difficult it is going to be,” he added.
Sifon-Arevalo said Asia was the second-most exposed region, due to many of its countries being significant Gulf oil and gas importers.
India, Thailand and Indonesia have relatively lower reserves of oil, while the region also had already heavily indebted countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka whose finances would be further hurt by rising energy prices.
“We are closely monitoring these (countries) to see how the credit stories evolve,” Sifon-Arevalo said.
