Another 11 beggars offloaded from Saudi Arabia-bound flight

KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has offloaded 11 alleged beggars in the disguise of Umrah pilgrims from a Saudi Arabia-bound flight at Karachi airport.

The group, consisting of 11 persons, including 8 women, were traveling on Umrah visas on fake return tickets and hotel bookings. Upon investigation, the accused confessed that they were going abroad to beg, FIA said.

FIA Karachi Circle arrested the passengers and initiated further interrogation and legal action.

A senior FIA official told the publication that immigration staff at airports have offloaded several passengers from flights in the last couple of months to discourage the trend. The potential beggars disguised themselves as tourists to visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Iran, Oman, and Turkiye, FIA officials said.

Earlier, the US

Pakistani officials have also expressed concerns over the increasing number of Pakistani beggars in foreign countries. A top official told the Senate Stand­ing Committee on Overseas Pakist­a­nis that 90 percent of beggars arrested in foreign countries were of Pakistani origin.