RAWALPINDI, June 29: A batch of 23 Pakistani illegal immigrants, arrested by authorities in Mauritania, will reach Islamabad on a chartered flight on Saturday, official sources said.

Mirza Mohammad Yasin, the additional director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) confirmed that 23 illegal immigrants had been deported by Mauritania. They will arrive on a chartered flight and reach the Islamabad International Airport on Saturday. The ADG said, these 23 persons were part of the group of 367 people from South Asia who had attempted to enter France. All of them were arrested by the Mauritania authorities after the boat in which they were travelling in capsized, in March 2007.

The ADG said, that out of these 367 illegal immigrants, 167 were from India, while 115 were Pakistanis. These 115 Pakistanis had already been deported to Pakistan in March 2007.

Mr Yasin said, “there had been some problems in the identification of the 23 illegal immigrants, which caused a delay in their deportation, but now all of them have been (identified and) confirmed as Pakistani nationals, belonging to four districts of Punjab —Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Mandi Bahauddin.”