KARACHI, May 24: As many as 530 Pakistani labourers who had illegally emigrated to Oman sailed back to Karachi on Saturday after authorities in Omani capital Muscat deported them, officials said.

“We have received 530 men deported from Muscat and are interrogating them to ascertain their nationalities,” assistant director of the FIA Subah Sadiq said.

“After ascertaining nationalities, they would be released and if there are any non-Pakistanis among them they will be detained,” he said.

“Almost all of them were smuggled by different gangs from the shores of Balochistan to Muscat in dilapidated boats risking their lives,” Sadiq said.

Before they were deported, Muscat’s government had detained them in jails for several months.—AFP