RAWALPINDI: The Pakistani authorities on Wednesday accepted 42 Pakistanis deported from the United Kingdom, while one individual was not accepted and was sent back on the same flight.

According to a senior Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official, the 43 deportees were detained by immigration officials at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA) for several hours for questioning, and all but one were allowed to leave after verification that they were Pakistanis.

However, Mohammad Azam, whose father Talib Hussain is a resident of Bahawalnagar, was sent back on the same flight after his documents could not be verified by the interior ministry.

“A special flight brought 43 Pakistanis who were charged with overstay in the UK – 42 of them were verified by the Ministry of Interior and their further verification was processed at the step of the aircraft. After verifying bio data, they were brought into the international arrivals lounge,” the FIA deputy director said.

Their bio data forms and immigration was carried out by the FIA’s Anti-Human Trafficking Cell (AHTC).

None of the deportees were allowed to disembark the plane until their verification had been completed.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has previously said that no unregistered deportee “will be allowed to come to Pakistan, and if that happens they will be sent back”.

Under the new interior ministry policy, the FIA has been directed not to accept any deportee before verifying that he or she is a Pakistani national.

In December 2014, the FIA refused entry to around 30 people deported by the Greek authorities. The FIA sent them back to Greece on the same flight that brought them to Pakistan because their documents could not be verified by the interior ministry.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2016