RAWALPINDI, Feb 8: Fifty-ojne Pakistanis deported from the United States arrived in Islamabad by a chartered flight on Wednesday, immigration authorities told Dawn. The chartered Boeing 757 flight carrying the deportees guarded by 15 US security officials arrived at the Islamabad airport at around 12:30pm.
They had been detained by US authorities on charges of overstaying, travelling on fake documents, and some on criminal charges.
Those arrested on criminal charges were deported after their sentences were completed in American jails.
US security officials guarding the deportees handed them over to Pakistani immigration authorities who recorded their statements at the Islamabad airport and also examined their case files.
Immigration authorities said that all deportees were allowed to go as they had not been involved in any crime in Pakistan.
More than 2,000 Pakistanis have been deported from the US since the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The last batch of 79 Pakistani deportees from the US had arrived in Islamabad on October 5, 2005.
The majority of deportees ordered deported in the past had not complied with those orders, while the others had been convicted in crimes such as sexual assault, narcotics possession, immigration fraud, forgery, perjury and counterfeiting, etc.
ONLINE adds: As many as 51 Pakistanis deported by the US arrived home on Wednesday. The deportees included a woman.
A source informed Online that the US immigration department after apprehending them subsequently handed them over to the Federal Investigation Agency for investigation. They were allegedly involved in raping, plundering, fraud and highway robbery.
The deportees said that they had been languishing in American jails for many years and got sanctuary with the effort of the Pakistani government.
