Saudi Arabia deports 56,000 Pakistani beggars, Pak authorities offload 66,000 flying to beg abroad

Beggars from Pakistan have been defying no-fly lists, visa curbs, stern warnings from foreign governments, and even deportations and continue to fly to Gulf nations to beg. Saudi Arabia has deported as many as 56,000 beggars, while Pakistani authorities themselves offloaded more than 66,000 passengers in 2025 to curb begging gangs from going abroad. Thousands of Pakistanis continued travelling abroad or attempting to do so solely to beg. Saudi Arabia, which has two of Islam’s holiest places, deported around 56,000 Pakistanis for begging, while Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency offloaded 66,154 suspect passengers in 2025 to prevent them from going abroad after several complaints were made to the Pakistani government.

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Last month, the UAE stopped issuing visas to most Pakistani citizens due to concerns about individuals arriving in the country and getting involved in criminal activities and begging.

These numbers were released by a Pakistani parliamentary panel in the National Assembly after Islamabad placed thousands of its citizens on the Exit Control List (ECL), or no-fly list. Last year, Saudi Arabia had asked Pakistan to stop beggars from misusing Umrah visas to reach the holy cities of Mecca and Medina for begging.

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A report in Karachi-based The News International cited the head of Pakistan’s border control security agency, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Riffat Mukhtar, as saying, “56,000 Pakistanis involved in organised begging were recently deported from Saudi Arabia.”

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Mukhtar said that illegal migration and begging rings have severely damaged Pakistan’s image globally, as beggars from Pakistan have flooded cities in West Asia by misusing pilgrimage and tourist visas. That streets in Saudi Arabia are full of Pakistani beggars, as one social media user from Pakistan posted on X, “I just came back from Umrah, and I assure you that I'm ashamed of being a Pakistani. They are begging inside the Bin Dawood store, they are begging during Umrah, and they are begging on the streets.”

Pakistani beggars are also found in the UAE, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain.

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