KARACHI, Nov 12: The director-general of the National Alien Registration Authority in a presentation to the Nazim Karachi said due to a high number of illegal immigrants in Sindh and Karachi, NARA has set up 16 offices in the province, and it has 25 offices in the country.

The DG NARA, Salim Khan, told the Nazim Karachi, Naimatullah Khan, that the main function of NARA was to register all foreigners in the country who had no permission to stay before July 10, 2000, besides establishment of a databank on aliens and provide input to the government for policy-making.

The DG said because of the presence of about 1.88 million aliens in Karachi, out of about 3.35 million in the country, the city had faced problems due to the involvement of certain aliens’ groups in drug/arms smuggling, robbery, flesh trade and terrorism.

Since no reliable data was available on the aliens, the presence of such a large number of aliens could endanger law and order, he added.

According to the presentation, illegal immigrants own shops dealing in smuggled goods, work as domestic servants, skilled workers in fisheries, garments and shipbreaking industry, as cooks and waiters in hotels, restaurants, etc.

Large number of these persons are also teachers and prayer leaders in mosques and Madressahs. They are also employed in the poultry sector as labourers and vendors of fruit and vegetables. They also work in betel-leaves shops and are also engaged in garbage collection and its resale. — PPI