KARACHI, Nov 30: A group of 15 illegal Pakistani immigrants arrived here after being released by Sri Lankan authorities, FIA officials said here on Saturday.

These included Nasir Husain, Ziaullah, Sajid Naeem, Anjum Shehzad, Javed Iqbal, Zafar Iqbal, Imran Asghar, Sajjad Ahmed, Bashir, Faisal, Iqbal, Ghulam Sarwar, Khalid Husain, Mohammad Ansar, Nasir A Khan.

“They arrived here this morning at 2am by a flight of Air Lanka. They were arrested by Sri Lankan authorities for travelling on illegal documents between a period ranging from June 11 to 23”, an FIA official said.

He said they were handed deportation orders by Sri Lankan immigration authorities on September 18, but could not travel due to non-availability of seats on the airlines.

One of these illegal travellers, Nasir Husain, said a travelling agent in Lahore named Rangi had promised them and many others to provide job opportunities in Italy and Spain as sailors.

“He took us to Colombo in several groups of 10 to 12 people where we were roaming in a Russian ship when the Sri Lankan Navy arrested us for travelling on illegal travel documents,” he said and added that they received very little food during the two-month detention in Sri Lanka. He said that unemployment problem had forced them to seek such a risky option.

Another deported Pakistani, Anjum Shehzad, said he, along with others, had a confirmed seat on the Gulf Air flight of November 17, but the pilot of the aircraft off-loaded the group, alleging they were hijackers.—APP