200 Pak illegals freed

Khaleej Times (03 April 2005)
By a staff reporter

DUBAI — Nearly 200 illegal immigrants from Pakistan were released from the UAE jails and flown back home on Friday.

Most of these prisoners were arrested in the UAE for entering the country illegally and working without visas where they were arrested and sent to jails.

Pakistani Human Rights Activist Ansar Burney, who accompanied the prisoners back home, said: “Some of these prisoners were behind bars for a long time."

"The release of these people was made possible due to the cooperation of the Pakistan Embassy in Abu Dhabi and Pakistan’s Consulate at Dubai," he said.

Giving details, Burney said that the UAE government released the Pakistani prisoners on humanitarian grounds and sent them back to Pakistan. Most of these illegal immigrants are very poor and belong to far flung areas of all the four provinces of Pakistan, he explained.

Burney thanked the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, for their kind cooperation with Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International in getting the Pakistanis released from the UAE prisons and sending them back to Pakistan.

Among those released include three Pakistani children ageing 12 to 14 years.

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