30 migrants refused entry, go back to EU

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan sent 30 migrants back to three European countries on Thursday after refusing to allow them to disembark from a chartered plane at an Islamabad airport, officials said, a move that reflected growing frustration over the treatment of asylum seekers.

Sarfraz Hussain, a spokesman for the Pakistani Interior Ministry, described the migrants as “unverified deportees”, most of whom were sent back from Greece, saying the authorities would not permit anyone to enter the country without proper documentation.

A Greek police official said all 49 passengers on the plane were Pakistani citizens. “They had Pakistani Embassy documents,” he said. “Why would Pakistani Embassy staff give documents to people who are not from Pakistan?”

The Pakistani i nterior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said last month European countries were sending people to Pakistan without identifying their nationality. But the episode on Thursday was the first time the country refused to admit deportees.

The EU said on Thursday Pakistan was asking for identity data about the deportees above and beyond what was called for in a readmission agreement reached in 2010.

Officials said none of the passengers flown to Benazir Bhutto International Airport were initially allowed to leave the plane. The passengers were questioned, and authorities then allowed 19 people to disembark. They were taken into custody by the human trafficking unit of the Interior Ministry.

Greece’s migration minister on Thursday said his country — the most popular entry point for asylum seekers in Europe — would address the deteriorating situation along the Macedonian border.

Pakistanis are among the flow of asylum seekers into Europe this year, but unlike refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, they are rarely allowed to stay because they are seen as economic migrants.

A Greek police official said “action will be taken” when the migrants returned to Greece, but he did not elaborate, noting that the flight was organised by Frontex, the EU border-monitoring agency.

He said 39 were deported from Greece and 10 from Austria and Bulgaria. Of the 30 barred from Pakistan, 26 were deported from Greece.

Pakistan tightened its policy on readmitting migrants last month, and Mr Khan said several EU countries were subjecting an agreement to “blatant misuse”. Yiannis Mouzalas, the Greek migration minister, said the EU needed to intervene.

Mr Khan said many of the 90,000 citizens of Pakistan deported last year were treated unfairly, and Pakistanis travelling without proper documents were labelled terrorists.

At a Nov 23 meeting, Mr Khan and Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU commissioner for migration, agreed to cooperate. On Thursday, however, Mr Hussain said Greece had “immoral, inhuman and illegal” conduct.

Meanwhile Mr Mouzalas said the border situation would be solved within the next 10 days. The International Organisation for Migration said borders were closed because of protests and rioting, and a Moroccan citizen, 22, died of electrocution from a highvoltage cable when he climbed on top of a stationary train near the border.