Deportations of Pakistani citizens from abroad over begging have fallen by 75 percent, officials have said, crediting the decline to stricter immigration measures introduced by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the rollout of an AI based passenger screening system.
Illegal border crossings into Europe by Pakistani nationals have also dropped by 47 percent, according to senior FIA officials.
FIA senior officer Dr Athar Waheed told a private media outlet that deportation cases linked to begging abroad had declined by 75 percent, while deportations over fake travel documents fell by 31 percent. He said that compared to 2024, overall deportations of Pakistani citizens from European countries during 2025 dropped by 16 percent as well.
Waheed said that a report issued by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, FRONTEX, showed illegal border crossings into Europe by Pakistani citizens fell by 47 percent during the first four months of 2026. He attributed the trend to the FIA’s intelligence-based immigration screening and risk profiling system deployed at airports.
The FIA said that the improvement followed the rollout of its upgraded Integrated Border Management System, IBMS-II, which has been linked to databases maintained by NADRA (National Database and Registration Authority), Interpol, the Immigration and Passport System and the Bureau of Immigration. A risk analysis unit has also been established and an AI based passenger profiling system was introduced through the pre-departure desk to flag high risk passengers before they leave the country.
According to the agency, the measures form part of a wider strategy aimed at curbing illegal immigration, dismantling networks involved in the misuse of visas and strengthening Pakistan’s standing internationally when it comes to immigration law enforcement.
A decline in deportations from Gulf countries lends further support to the agency’s claims. A private media outlet reported, citing figures from FIA Additional Director General for Immigration Nauman Siddiqui, that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states deported nearly 4,800 Pakistanis on begging charges in 2024. That number fell to around 1,100 in 2025 and dropped further to 802 this year, a decline officials linked to a crackdown on begging carried out through visit visas.
Siddiqui said that monitoring and enforcement at Pakistani airports have also been tightened considerably. In 2024, 507 people suspected of travelling abroad to beg were offloaded from flights, followed by 597 such cases in 2025. Only 27 people were stopped during the first six months of this year, a figure Siddiqui said reflects how stricter screening and legal action have discouraged the practice.
He added that the FIA has stepped up legal proceedings against such perpetrators. Cases registered against suspected beggars offloaded from flights rose from 34 in 2024 to 38 in 2025. Cases against beggars deported from abroad saw a far steeper increase, climbing from 50 FIRs in 2024 to 239 in 2025, as investigators went after those facilitating begging networks operating overseas.
