ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has decided to blacklist passports of professional beggars as crackdown against alleged beggars travelling abroad continues, local media reported on Friday.
FIA Director-General Mohsin Butt, in a statement, said that the agency has issued a special directive to all airports to carry out thorough screenings of passengers travelling abroad. He further said that almost 74 passengers from airports across the country were offloaded being alleged beggars and transferred to the agency’s Anti-Human Trafficking Circle for further interrogation.
The FIA official further said that complete screening and profiling of Umrah pilgrims was being ensured. He said that the passports of people allegedly involved in seeking alms in foreign countries will now be blacklisted. It is to mention here that the Agency has launched a crackdown against alleged beggars travelling abroad.
Earlier in October, FIA had offloaded 24 alleged beggars travelling in the disguise of Umrah pilgrims from a Saudi Arabia-bound flight at Multan airport. The group, consisting of men and women, was initially travelling on Umrah visas. During the immigration process, the FIA officials questioned the passengers who confessed that they were going to Saudi Arabia to seek alms.
For the astonishment of many, the beggars had an agreement with the travel agents that they would give half of their earnings to them for the arrangements.
The crackdown was launched after a report presented to the upper house of the parliament stated that 90% of professional beggars arrested in the Middle East were of Pakistani origin. Most of the pickpockets arrested from religious sites, including the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia, were also Pakistanis.
