Over 8,000 Pakistani Illegal Immigrants Return Home Under Malaysian Amnesty Scheme: Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari on Monday said over 8,000 Pakistanis have returned home country under a Malaysian amnesty scheme

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 30th Dec, 2019 ) :Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari on Monday said over 8,000 Pakistanis have returned home country under a Malaysian amnesty scheme.

He said the amnesty scheme was aimed at ensuring the voluntarily repatriation of illegal immigrants from Malaysia to their respective countries.

The 'Back4good' amnesty scheme became operational on August 1, 2019 to facilitate the illegal immigrants to return their respective countries without facing any detention or fines, and blacklisting.

Zulfikar Bukhari said Pakistan's High Commission in Kuala Lumpur made extensive efforts to facilitate some 8,190 Pakistani illegal immigrants to formally avail the scheme.

"So far more than 8,000 of such Pakistanis have arrived. Around 200 Pakistanis are expected to reach Islamabad on Tuesday (December, 31) for which special arrangements including charted flight (PK-9894) have been finalized," he added.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, in a brief statement, had advised Pakistani illegal immigrants in Malaysia to make prior arrangements of their tickets so that they could properly utilize the scheme before its expiry date --- December 31, 2019.

In an exclusive conversation with APP, Pakistan's High Commissioner in Malaysia Amna Baloch said each illegal immigrant had to pay 700 Malaysian Ringgits to get out-pass from the immigration authorities in Malaysia.

She said the payment of out-pass for several Pakistani illegal immigrants were made by the High Commission and philanthropists based in Malaysia.

Amina Baloch said the High Commission had issued over General Emergency Passports to 1,480 Pakistanis illegal immigrants and over 350 Gratis Emergency Passports to Pakistani prisoners during the last five months for expediting their repatriation process.

Giving general break-up, she said some 1,880 Pakistanis had arrived Islamabad in August, 1,216 in September, 1,275 October, 1,404 November and 2415 during December.

Highlighting Pakistan government's initiatives, she said it had made special arrangements for additional flights operations to Kuala Lumpur during the last five months to ensure their timely repatriation, she added.

Unlike the private companies, she said the Pakistan International Airline (PIA) had issued tickets to Pakistani illegal immigrants at affordable rates.

To a query, she said some 82,000 Pakistanis were living across Malaysia legally and there was still a specific number of Pakistanis who were residing illegally.

Ms. Baloch said the High Commission would decide its strategy to facilitate the repatriation of Pakistani illegal immigrants after the completion of the amnesty scheme.

She said Pakistani High Commission in Malaysia was in talks with Malaysian authorities to ensure registered employment for Pakistani manpower here.

"We are taking measures to encourage emigration of Pakistanis through legal channels", she added.

It may be mentioned here that some 300 Pakistani detainees were also brought back from Malaysia in May, 2019 by the government after provision of financial and technical assistance.