ISLAMABAD, Jan 19: Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri on Friday told the Senate that a total of 1,264 Pakistanis were arrested in 31 countries for having fake documents and visas during the last three years.

In a written reply to a question of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) parliamentarian Mohammad Talha Mahmood, the foreign minister said the largest number of 428 Pakistanis had been arrested in the UK for having fake documents or visas in the last three years followed by 311 in Saudi Arabia.

The minister said that 88 Pakistanis were arrested in Germany, 87 in Singapore, 52 in France, 38 in Japan, 28 each in Poland and Italy, 25 in Canada, 24 in Austria, 19 in Norway, 18 each in Malaysia and Croatia, 17 in Denmark, 16 in the US, 12 in Hong Kong, 10 in Sri Lanka, seven in Egypt, six each in Portugal and Mauritius, five in India, four each in Azerbaijan and Slovakia, three in Bahrain, two each in Kuwait, Qatar and Syria, and one each in Serbia, Romania, Tunisia and Kenya.

In response to a question regarding the assistance provided to the arrested citizens, the minister said that Pakistani missions abroad had requested the concerned quarters for access of counsellors.

He said embassy officials regularly undertook visits to the detention centres to meet the prisoners to ascertain their welfare. The missions also provided services of lawyers and helped in facilitating the services of Pakistani volunteers, he added.

Moreover, he said, emergency passports were issued to those Pakistanis whose cases regarding immigration, asylum and overstay had been decided by the courts of the host countries.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, while responding to a supplementary question, said that it was the responsibility of the ministry of interior to check incidents of human trafficking.