Hundreds enter Pakistan from Iran despite border closure
Pilgrims returning without adequate screening for coronavirus, documents reveal
More than 100 pilgrims returned to Pakistan on Thursday from Iran, immigration documents show, despite the border being sealed by the Pakistan government to try to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The pilgrims entered Pakistan via a land border crossing at Taftan in southwestern Balochistan province. Pakistan and Iran, one of the countries worst hit by the outbreak, share a 900 km border, which is frequently used for trade and by Pakistani Shiites, who travel to Iran for religious pilgrimages, often crossing at Taftan.
But in recent weeks, errors in the testing and quarantine of travelers who recently returned from Iran have turned Taftan into a hotbed of coronavirus.
The number of confirmed virus cases in Pakistan climbed above 1,200 on Friday, health officials said. On Tuesday, when Pakistan had 892 confirmed cases, health chief Dr. Zafar Mirza said that 78 percent of the victims had a history of travel to Iran.
Infections in Iran began to rise rapidly last month, but the Pakistan government only officially closed the border on March 16 — and the Taftan crossing remains porous. On Thursday, despite the border closure, 113 pilgrims crossed into Balochistan from Iran, according to immigration documents seen by Arab News. The influx brought the total number of people to enter the country through Taftan since February to 6,080.
Of that figure, 4,596 have been sent to their home provinces, while 1,484 remain in quarantine at Taftan, figures from the Balochistan chief minister’s office show.
The Iranian Embassy in Islamabad did not respond to emailed questions about the continued movement of pilgrims from Iran into Pakistan and whether it had screened pilgrims before sending them home.
In an interview with Arab News on Wednesday, Balochistan Home Minister Mir Zia Ullah Langove said that the provincial government had contacted federal authorities when the outbreak began last month, asking them to tell Iranian authorities not to send pilgrims back to Pakistan without proper screening. Local government officials also met Iranian authorities to communicate their concerns.
But thousands of pilgrims still arrived in Balochistan without having been screened in Iran, Langove said, adding: “We were left with no choice but to let them enter and quarantine them on our side of the border.”
He said the provincial government fulfilled its responsibility of quarantining the pilgrims and returning them to their home provinces with complete records. “When they (Pakistanis returning from Iran) came back, we quarantined them, and once they had completed their quarantine, we transported them in very special conditions, under security, to different provinces where they belonged,” Mirza told Arab News in an interview.
But health and government officials have said that thousands of people were released from quarantine in Taftan without being properly tested or even isolated, leading to the spread of the virus. Unverified video clips on social media showed four or five people lodged in a single tent at the border quarantine site, according to a Reuters report. Others showed scores of people lying close together on the floor of a single corridor of Pakistan House, a building at Taftan built to house pilgrims going to or returning from Iran.
FASTFACT
Balochistan province’s Home Minister Mir Zia Ullah Langove says Pakistan has ‘no choice’ but to let travelers enter.