UAE’s travel warning to Emiratis not lifted even after four years

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) had issued a travel warning to their citizens for visiting Pakistan four years back, but it has not been lifted as yet.

Diplomatic sources of Pakistan also confirmed that the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs had issued the travel warning to their citizens in 2014 when Pakistan had been fighting and dealing with critical situation due to extremism.

The UAE’s warning to their citizens for visiting Pakistan still exists and can be seen on the website of UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) although the law and order situation has improved in Pakistan since the past two years.

Diplomatic officer, on the condition of anonymity, informed The News that neither the Pakistan government nor Pakistani diplomatic channels used their influence to remove Pakistan’s name from the warning list of the UAE.

And now the different sections of newspapers once again reminded the citizens with the news that the warning is still intact to travel to Pakistan. The media reported that UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has issued a travel warning to 13 countries and cautioned travellers to exercise caution when visiting such unstable destinations, including Brazil, the Republic of Yemen and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Authorities in the UAE have issued a travel advisory to more than 10 countries and warned Emiratis against travelling to three countries. The UAE warned their citizens to travel to Qatar due to political situation in 2017, Lebanese Republic due to security situation in 2016 while Karabakh (the mountain region along Azerbaijan and Armenia) in 2016 due to political situation.

Many Pakistanis living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) asked the Pakistan’s authorities to  resolve this issue as they believed that the peace has returned to their country after so many sacrifices of Pakistan armed forces, law enforcement agencies and common men of Pakistan.