Repatriated Pakistanis test positive

ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of Pakistanis who were repatriated from the Middle East - where many lost jobs amid coronavirus shutdowns and were living in cramped conditions - have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said Friday. Pakistan has so far brought about 20,000 nationals home, among them a large number of unskilled workers who had been laboring in Gulf nations only to see their jobs disappear as lockdowns slowed economic activity.

Of the 2,069 Pakistanis returning from the Middle East to the southern province of Sindh, more than 500 tested positive for the coronavirus, Murad Ali Shah, Sindh’s chief minister, told a press conference. And in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a senior government official told AFP that more than 200 of the 1,600 passengers repatriated to the city of Peshawar had tested positive. According to the foreign office, about 4.5 million Pakistanis work in the Middle East.

In addition to the 20,000 who have already come back, around 110,000 more overseas Pakistanis have registered a desire to return home. Pakistan has been chartering flights to bring back stranded nationals, as commercial flights into the country have been halted. Laborers in many Gulf nations live in crowded

dormitories or work camps where social distancing is impossible. During a briefing Thursday, Moeed Yusuf, the prime minister’s special assistant on national security, said that on some flights as

many as half the passengers were infected. “Our ministry of foreign affairs has raised this issue with those countries and we are finding ways so it should not happen again,” he said. Citing economic pressures, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday announced the easing of a nationwide lockdown, sparking fears coronavirus cases may increase dramatically. More than 26,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed so far, with the death toll at a relatively low 600 or so in the nation of about 215 million people. — AFP