More than 39,000 Pakistanis have been deported from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in the past four months, reported Saudi Gazette on Tuesday.
Referring
to the security sources, the Saudi newspaper in its report said that
the deportations were made for "violating the rules of residence and
work".
The report also said that the involvement of
several Pakistani nationals in "some terrorist actions" orchestrated by
the militant Islamic State (IS) group as well as crimes of drug
trafficking, thefts, forgery and physical assault prompted calls for
thorough scrutiny of Pakistanis aspiring to work in Saudi Arabia.
"Abdullah
Al-Sadoun, chairman of the security committee of the Shoura Council,
called for thoroughly scrutinising the Pakistanis before they are
recruited for work in the Kingdom," the report said.
Furthermore,
the Shoura Council chairman also asked for more closer coordination
with the concerned authorities in Pakistan to thoroughly check those
coming to work in the Kingdom due to the involvement of a number of
Pakistanis in security issues.
“Pakistan itself is
plagued with terrorism due to its close proximity with Afghanistan. The
Taliban extremist movement was itself born in Pakistan," Sadoun was
quoted as saying.
Citing the statistics provided by Saudi
interior ministry, the report went on to say that 82 Pakistani suspects
are currently held in intelligence prisons over charges of terror and
other security related issues.
"As many as 15 Pakistanis,
including a woman, were nabbed following the recent terrorist
operations in Al-Harazat and Al-Naseem districts in Jeddah."
A few months ago, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had released a report, "Labour Migration from Pakistan: 2015 Status Report" showing that 131,643 Pakistani migrants were deported from Saudi Arabia between 2012-15.
According
to the report, most of the individuals deported from Saudi Arabia were
job seekers and businessmen. The report had also claimed that a large
number of migrant workers were stranded abroad due to "lack of proper
documentation and thus deported".
The largest number of stranded Pakistanis at 882,887 was deported from Jeddah during the years 2005-06 to 2014-15.
Another
media report suggested that Saudi Arabia deported 50,262 foreigners for
violating work and residence regulations during last two months of
2014.
In 2013 alone, Saudi authorities had reportedly
deported more than 700,000 foreigners for violating work and residence
laws and foiled more than 290,000 attempts by infiltrators to enter the
kingdom illegally.