ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the UK signed a reciprocal agreement on Wednesday for the repatriation of “foreign criminals and immigration offenders” from the UK to Pakistan, the UK Home Office said.
Officials from Islamabad and London have held talks over the past couple of years about the repatriation of convicted citizens and criminals.
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel met Pakistan’s Interior Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar and the Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK Moazzam Ahmad Khan in London to sign the reciprocal agreement.
Later, Patel tweeted that she had signed a “new landmark agreement” to return foreign criminals and immigration offenders from the UK to Pakistan.
“I make no apology for removing dangerous foreign criminals and immigration offenders who have no right to remain in the UK,” Patel said in a statement adding that “the British public have quite rightly had enough of people abusing our laws and gaming the system so we can’t remove them.”
“This agreement, which I am proud to have signed with our Pakistani friends, shows the New Plan for Immigration in action and the government delivering,” she added.
According to the UK home department, Pakistan nationals make up the seventh largest number of foreign criminals in prisons in England and Wales, accounting for nearly 3 percent of the foreign national offender population.
“The agreement underlines both countries’ [Pakistan and UK] ongoing commitment to tackling the issue of illegal migration and the significant threats it poses to both nations,” UK’s Home Office. “The agreement also includes ongoing work to improve and expand UK-Pakistani law enforcement cooperation.”
