By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OP&HRD) has said that the government has so far repatriated more than 61,000 stranded Pakistanis from 50 countries, with thousands still stuck at the foreign shores, looking for their return amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to a document shared by the OP&HRD on Wednesday, the evacuation of such a large number of stranded nationals is a feather in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s cap, which took lead in launching the world’s largest repatriation operation soon after the imposition of travel restrictions worldwide to curb the coronavirus spread. As of June 8, at least 61,165 Pakistanis were brought to the country, it added.
Out of total, 56,836 were brought to the country through special flights, whereas repatriation of 4,329 Pakistanis was done via land borders of India, Afghanistan and Iran. The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries remained a main focus for the government where a whooping number of expats were still stuck due to limited number of flights operated by Pakistan. Some 23,889 were evacuated from the UAE, followed by Saudi Arabia from where some 7,428 citizens brought back to the country. Similarly, 4,156 were repatriated form Qatar, 4,301 form the UK, 2,987 from Afghanistan (via land route), 2,956 Oman, 1,159 Malaysia, 1,349 the USA, 924 Iran (via land route) and 418 from India (via land route).
