PESHAWAR, Sept 6: Saudi immigration authorities have deported two Pakistani labourers on charges of travelling on fake passports. However, the labourers, who returned to the provincial capital on Tuesday by a Pakistan International Airlines flight, claimed that their passports were genuine and they had travelled on the same books four years ago.

Talking to this correspondent at the passport circle office of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), where they were brought for investigation, they said they had gone from Peshawar by a PIA flight on Sunday but Saudi immigration authorities detained them at Riyadh airport and deported them on Tuesday.

Fazal Gul and Malang Khan, of Swabi and Swat, respectively, said they had gone to Riyadh in May 2001 and returned to their country in March this year on leave. When they went back with the same passports on re-entry visas, Saudi authorities detained them on charges of travelling on fake passports.

Saudi immigration officials did not allow them to talk to their employers or members of their families working in Riyadh, they said. The Saudi immigration had kept their original documents, including Aqama, passports and computerized national identity cards, they said, adding that they were deported on emergency travel documents.

They alleged that they were mistreated by Saudi authorities. “They did not offer us meal and allowed us to drink water after 18 hours in detention,” Mr Gul alleged. “I was slapped by the interrogators,” said Mr Khan.

Both vowed to take legal action against the Saudi government.

They claimed that they had shared a cell of the immigration authorities with five Bangladeshi workers who had also gone on leave to their country after working for several years in Saudi Arabia, but detained on their return on the charges of possessing fake passports.

The two labourers appealed to the government to take up the issue with Saudi authorities and save other Pakistani workers who might be expelled on false allegations.

Sources said two Pakistani labourers were deported from Riyadh airport a few days ago on the same charges.

All the four workers were travelling on original documents, they claimed.