Stranded abroad

The plight of the 138 Pakistani traders who were detained at the Moscow airport for nearly a full day before being deported shows the heightened suspicion that is directed towards all Muslim travellers, especially in the wake of the Brussels attacks. The traders, all of whom were mobile phone sellers attending a conference in Russia, had valid visas but were held because they couldn’t prove that they had made full payment on their hotel rooms – a seemingly minor infraction that should have been sorted easily. Photos of the detained Pakistanis show that they were herded into a small room and were likely not given much to eat or drink. Consular access took time to arrange and in the end they were sent back to Pakistan via Dubai and Istanbul. Now that they have deportation on their records, it will make it difficult for these traders to get visas to other countries. This is a microcosm of what Muslim travellers have had to go through since 9/11 and the problems have only increased with the rise of IS. From being denied visas to being ‘randomly’ selected for additional security screening and suffering through profiling by other passengers, travelling while Muslim is not for the faint-hearted.

That this incident happened in Russia is not too surprising. Our government has never been the most proactive when it comes to protecting the interests of our own citizens. Recall our migrant labour stuck in conditions of virtual slavery in some countries. In this case, too, Pakistan should have been shouting itself hoarse demanding that our citizens be treated with basic respect and courtesy instead of being herded in a tiny room. The Foreign Office did release a statement on Friday that it was in constant touch with the Russians regarding the traders. However, the FO had an additional responsibility to keep us informed too and in that it was negligent. Now that the traders are out of Russia, we need to question the Russian government to ascertain why they were held for so long and deported rather than allowed to proceed to the conference once it was ascertained they posed no security threat. The government must remember that Pakistan will only be treated with the respect it craves at the international stage if the state is forthright in standing up for the rights of its citizens.