March 5, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 1, 1424

WASHINGTON, March 4: A large number of Pakistani nationals in US custody are approaching the Pakistan Embassy in Washington to arrange their early repatriation, the embassy said on Tuesday.

“Most of the requests have come from the relatives and friends of those detainees who have exhausted all judicial remedies and are awaiting deportation,” said Mohammed Sadiq, the deputy chief of mission.

Described as “deportation absconders” by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, such detainees were served deportation orders in the past but had not complied with these orders.

The total number of Pakistani detainees in various INS detention centers is about 250 out of which 150 have no judicial appeal left and have been waiting for a considerable period of time to be repatriated to Pakistan.

Sadiq says the Embassy has raised this issue with the United States at various levels and has been informed that commercial airlines have placed new restrictions on travel of detainees, due to which the repatriation of Pakistani detainees has been delayed.

“It is the endeavour of the Embassy and the government of Pakistan to have such detainees repatriated to Pakistan expeditiously with honour and dignity,” Sadiq said.

“It is important that such individuals be reunited with their families who are waiting anxiously for their return. To this end, the Embassy is working closely with INS to affect the repatriation of all such detainees to Pakistan.”

While assuring that the detainees would be repatriated “at the earliest,” the embassy failed to explain how much longer do these Pakistani have to languish in jails, waiting for repatriation.

Anxious relatives and friends receive the usual assurance that all efforts would be made to send them home as soon as possible but such assurances do not appear very convincing given the fact that there’s little the embassy can do to arrange the repatriation.

Since the repatriation is arranged by the INS, which also funds the flights, it is only the US administration that can decide how and when to send the detainees home.