London and Islamabad are negotiating a treaty that would crack down on Pakistanis who come to the UK on visas and then remain there after their visas expire, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said.
"We have initiated dialogue on this. This will help those who are genuine visa applicants. This will help Pakistan more," Qureshi said, speaking at a press conference at the Pakistan High Commission in London on Tuesday.
The foreign minister confirmed that he'd discussed issue with UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid during their meeting Monday.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi calls on British Home Secretary Sajid Javid in London United Kingdom (17.06.19)#PTI #Pakistan 🇵🇰 #UnitedKingdom 🇬🇧@SMQureshiPTI @SajidJavid
— PTI (@PTIofficial) 17 июня 2019 г.
Discussed matters of bilateral interest and ongoing security cooperation under the ESD pic.twitter.com/VSfqSPwRL3
Earlier, in a press release following their meeting, it was reported that the ministers had discussed the subject of immigration and visas, with Pakistan reportedly "underscore[ing] the need for a dialogue on legal migration which would be in line with the emerging requirement of human resource[s]" by the UK, adding that Pakistan was "rich in human capital".
According to a 2017 Migration Observatory study, Pakistani nationals accounted for about 9 percent of individuals who were removed or deported voluntarily in 2017, with 2,850 Pakistanis leaving the UK after entering the country illegally, overstaying their visas or otherwise violating the conditions of their stay.
It's difficult to determine the exact number of illegal immigrants, Pakistani or otherwise, in the UK. The UK's Office for National Statistics does not collect estimates on illegal immigrants, saying the very nature of the phenomenon makes it "impossible to quantify accurately the number of people who are in the country illegally". However, according to a report by the London School of Economics, there were about 533,000 'irregular' migrants in the country in 2007.
The issue of deporting of illegals from the UK back to Pakistan has occasionally been complicated by the Pakistani authorities' refusal to take back would-be migrants, who have cited their lack of appropriate travel documents or questioned the legality of their deportation from the UK. In such cases, the deportees have sometimes been sent back to the UK on the same chartered flights which carried them back to their home country.
