GUJRAT: Nine passengers traveling to an African country to further proceed towards European destinations were offloaded from a flight at the Sialkot International Airport by the Immigration authorities on Sunday.

The rate of offloaded passengers from certain cities, age groups and specific destinations has seen a surge during the last couple of months. However, theheightened alertness by the immigration staff is irritating for genuine businessmen and tourists.

An official of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said that the Immigration authorities had identified a group of passengers traveling by flight number FZ316 to African country Djibouti via Dubai (United Arab Emirates) from Sialkot Airport.

Adding, he said that the passengers namely Tassawar Abbas, Muhammad Siddique, Baber Hussain, Muhammad Saleem, Akhlaq Ahmed, Muqarrabul Hassan, Muhammad Talha, Imran Sikandar and Usman Ali could not satisfy the immigration officials about the purpose of their travel.

During further investigation, they revealed that they had struck a deal with human traffickers and agents in Rs 4.2million each to send them Italy via Libyan Coast on ship as they had to reach Libya after reaching Djibouti.

The offloaded passengers belonged to Gujrat, Sialkot, Narowal, Faisalabad and Sheikhupura districts of Punjab. The passengers were later handed over to the FIA Composite Circle, Gujranwala, for further legal action.

On the other hand a number of genuine businessmen and tourists have lodged a strong protest against the `harsh policy’ to offload even those going for business trips or tourism.

President of Gujrat Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ahmed Hassan Mattu told Dawn that he had received several complaints from members of the Gujrat chamber about being offloaded from Lahore, Sialkot and other airports despite having genuine travel documents and recommendation letters by the GtCCI.

He said that the business fraternity had been very concerned over such a harsh policy of FIA Immigration as genuine businessmen should not be stopped or bothered at the airports.

Some overseas Pakistanis too have lodged such complaints at the Sialkot and other airports.

President of Uk-Pak Businessmen Chamber Rashid Khan, while speaking to chamber members last week, had narrated his ordeal at the hands of Sialkot Airport staff and lodged strong protest against what he termed a discouraging attitude which should be noticed by the higher authorities.

Some other expatriate Pakistanis belonging to Gujrat region have also complained about the current policy of offloading passengers.

When asked about the reasons of offloading, Gujranwala FIA zone director Muhammad Bin Ashraf told Dawn that there was no harsh policy or new directions issued in this regard of offloading passengers with fake documents or suspicious motives.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2025