ISLAMABAD: About 100 Pakistanis stranded in different countries after expiry of their visa have returned home, sources in the Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment Pakistan (BIOEP) told Dawn on Sunday.

They said the Pakistanis returned home within a month after the bureau chalked out an action plan to control illegal migration of compatriots to other countries.

The bureau has warned people not to go abroad for work without a proper permit and before intimating it.

“We have taken notice of increasing incidents of illegal migration of Pakistanis and put in place some measures to stop the practice,” BIOEP Director General Habibur Rehman told Dawn.

He said illegal migrants not only created problems for themselves in other countries but also earned a bad name for Pakistan.

Under the action plan, he said, recruiting agents had been asked not to indulge in wrongdoing while sending people abroad otherwise stern action would be taken against them.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2014