19 January 2005	Wednesday	08 Zilhaj 1425

KARACHI, Jan 18: A new batch of 640 Pakistanis deported by Oman arrived here on Tuesday, raising to 35,000 the number expelled by the Gulf state for illegal entry over the past four years, officials said.

The deportees, mostly illiterate people from low income rural families, came back here by boat and were allowed to go to their homes after brief interrogation by immigration officials.

Their return was arranged by a local welfare group, which said many were lured by local people smugglers known as travel agents for jobs abroad. Many of them were in bad shape.

Security agencies last week arrested two top members of a human trafficking gang who sent thousands of Pakistanis to Europe and other countries illegally over the past several years. - AFP