ISLAMABAD: Foreign office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday that 27 Pakistani citizens, who were detained in Uganda in a crackdown on illegal migration this week, were set to fly out for Pakistan today.
Uganda authorities said at least 231 people were detained since Monday in operations that targeted a group of Nigerians living in the country’s north and another group of foreigners living together in a closed compound in Kampala.
The second group included people from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Ghana, Myanmar and other countries, who were staying together in a “highly restricted” apartment complex. Uganda’s internal affairs ministry said authorities acted on intelligence that showed large groups of foreigners living or working in Uganda without the necessary papers to do so. Many didn’t even have passports, the ministry said in a statement.
“Twenty-seven Pakistanis are set to fly today out of Uganda to Pakistan,” Andrabi told reporters during a weekly briefing in Islamabad.
“Around 30 others are also willing to arrange their air tickets soon.”
Without disclosing the total number of Pakistanis arrested in the crackdown, Andrabi said the “rest” will also leave Uganda as they are in the country on visit visas.
He said immigration authorities have imposed a financial penalty on the Pakistani nationals.
“However, our embassy team is discussing the matter with the Ugandan authorities to get it waived off,” Andrabi said.
Uganda said some of the detainees claimed they were trafficked into the country with promises of employment, while others were engaged in cyber-scamming activities.
The ministry said a few were found in possession of materials suggesting they were involved in other criminal activities.
Simon Peter Mundeyi, a spokesman for Uganda’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, told the Associated Press that trafficking victims and overstayers would be helped to leave Uganda after buying their own tickets.
Those authorities identify as suspected ringleaders of trafficking will be charged and could eventually face deportation, he added.
