Deported Pakistanis arrive home from Moscow

KARACHI: As many as 81 Pakistani traders, who were earlier deported from Moscow, Russia, returned home, arriving in Karachi and Islamabad from Dubai, reports Geo TV.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said that the Foreign Office had directed the Russian Embassy to help release the stranded Pakistani traders’ in Russia. The spokesperson said that the authorities would ascertain as to why these Pakistanis were being deported. He added that around 150 Pakistani businessmen were taken to Russia by a private company to take part in an exhibition and later 84 of them were detained at the Moscow airport without citing any reason for their detention while 48 were deported to Pakistan.

Pakistan’s ambassador in Moscow had earlier informed that the traders were not granted entry by the immigration authorities at the Moscow Airport, as immigration concerns rose after the deadly Brussels attacks which left 34 dead and more than 300 wounded in a series of bombing onslaughts.

Prior to this, more than 150 Pakistani traders had arrived at Moscow Airport on the invitation of an electronics firm from Russia but they were denied immigration at the airport and were stranded in a room without food and water. At least 80 of the businessmen were from Karachi.