February 20, 2003	Thursday	Zul Hijjah 18, 1423

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WASHINGTON, Feb 19: The Pakistan embassy in Washington has denied a news report suggesting that “dozens of Pakistanis” have been arrested during the registration process and that “bail bonds up to 25,000 dollars” have been set up.

The embassy said the factual position was that as compared to previous phases of the call-in registration, when there were widespread reports of high-handedness, mass detentions and maltreatment of registrants, Pakistanis had generally been treated with dignity, honour and kindness. This had been acknowledged by all major community organizations in the United States, it said.

Most Pakistanis who had cases pending with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) had not even been asked to appear before immigration judges, whereas 90 per cent of those who had filed for labour certification with the labour department had been given notices to appear (NTAs) before immigration judges, and had been allowed to go home on their own cognizance without any bail being set, it said.

In a small number of cases where Pakistani registrants could not furnish enough guarantees, relatively small bail amounts were fixed. On the average, such bail or bond amounts for Pakistanis ranged from $750 to $5,000. Only in five cases were the bail amounts more than $5,000, and at least in two such cases, the INS reported major blemishes in the records of such individuals.

The embassy said it was aware of the few Pakistani nationals who were detained, was in touch with those who had requested consular assistance and had taken up their cases with the US authorities.