On Saturday (December 24), a Pakistani channel named ’24 News HD’ published a report claiming that the UAE government had imposed a ‘visit visa’ ban on Pakistani nationals. It further claimed that the visa ban is applicable to those belonging to 24 different cities in Pakistan.
According to ’24 News HD’, the cities included Abbottabad, Dera Ghazi Khan, Dera Ismail Khan, Quetta, Khoshab, Muzaffargarh, Sargodha, Attock, Kasur, Kurram Agency, Nawabshah, Sheikhupura, Bajaur Agency, Hangu, Kohat, Larkana, Para Chinar, Skardu, Chakwal, Hunza, Kotli, Mohmand Agency, Sahiwal, and Sukkur.
Citing one Adnan Paracha, the report claimed that the crackdown by UAE authorities came due to the agent mafia in Pakistan. “The UAE imposed restrictions on the people of these cities because of the misstatement of the agents who sent them on visit visas but told them that they were being sent on a work visa,” the news channel quoted Adnan as saying.
’24 News HD’ reported that the Pakistanis, who were duped by agents, failed to get work and began begging in the Gulf nation to make ends meet. Dismayed by the actions of the Pakistani nationals, the UAE authorities reportedly deported many of them to their home country.
Soon after, the news report was picked up by the London-based digital news portal, ‘The Milli Chronicle‘, thereafter, another news portal ‘OneIndia’ published a similar report titled, ‘UAE shadow-bans visa for select Pakistanis.’
The report read, “People from a few Pakistani cities go to the UAE on a visit visa, but they start begging after landing there. Being a super-rich nation, UAE offers lucrative begging opportunities for these Pakistanis.”
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The Truth behind the allegations
Following outrage on social media over reports of visit visa ban on Pakistani nationals by the United Arab Emirates, the Foreign Office of Pakistan dismissed all such reports.
In a statement, spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said, “We have seen the reports. We can confirm that no such ban is in place by the UAE for the issuance of visas to Pakistani citizens.”
Consulate General of the UAE in Karachi, Bakheet Ateeq Al Remeithi, told Geo News that Pakistani citizens were free to apply for any type of UAE visa. “He told that apart from the consulates in Islamabad and Lahore, he is personally issuing visas to the citizens born or residing in these cities, from the Karachi consulate,” the report read.
It must be mentioned that ‘begging for alms’ is an offence in the UAE. The federal law on anti-begging states, “Anyone caught begging in the UAE will be fined AED 5,000 and imprisoned for a term up to three months.”
It further adds, “Those operating professional gangs of beggars or recruiting people from outside the country to work as beggars face a jail term of not less than six months and a minimum fine of AED 100,000.”
