A tightening state grip on Pakistan’s airports has turned lawful travel into a gamble.
A valid visa once meant you could pack your bags and leave without fear. In Pakistan, this basic certainty has faded. Since early 2025, thousands of citizens with genuine documents have been stopped at airports by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) immigration officers moments before boarding. Officials call it a measure to curb trafficking. For many travellers, it feels like an attack on their rights and dignity.
The term offloading has become common across Lahore, Sialkot, Islamabad and Karachi. It describes the final act of refusing a passenger who has checked in, passed security and walked to the gate. No written order is issued. No clear reason is given. People with confirmed tickets and valid visas walk back through arrival halls with cancelled journeys stamped in their passports. The scale is new. Families heading for Umrah, a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia and workers with job contracts in the Gulf and small traders flying to meet partners abroad have all reported being stopped. The practice has grown most sharply in the Gujrat and Sialkot region in Pakistan, an area known for legal labour migration.
Stop harassing innocent people who’re going overseas to study or work. They don’t send remittances elsewhere; they send them to Pak. This country runs on overseas. They’ve been given a valid visa for where they’re going, so why are you offloading them?Poor people can’t afford it. pic.twitter.com/KlJuAptYGw
— Ihtisham Ul Haq (@iihtishamm) November 27, 2025
The roots of this crackdown lie in the Greece boat tragedy of December 2024. More than 300 Pakistanis died while trying to reach Europe illegally by sea. Images of the wreck shook the country and drew global criticism. In response, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told agencies to crush smuggling networks. The FIA was ordered to stop suspected illegal migrants before they left Pakistan. Pressure also came from destination states. Officials in the UAE and other Gulf countries demanded tighter controls after repeated cases of Pakistani beggars and irregular workers. What began as a targeted campaign soon grew into a blanket policy that sweeps up both traffickers and ordinary travellers.
The official line sounds reasonable. The state says it wants to protect its citizens from dangerous routes and stop people who carry false papers. Yet most accounts from travellers reveal another story. Decisions at the counter often rest on gut feeling. Young men from Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin or Narowal draw extra attention. First time travellers face more questions. People in simple clothes are interrogated more sharply than those in business suits. Indirect flight paths raise suspicion even when they match the visa holder’s itinerary. If an officer feels unsure, the passenger is removed. On 23 November 2025, nine men at Sialkot Airport were taken off a flight to Djibouti even though their visas were verified. They had paid for tickets, booked accommodation and cleared security. They returned home with nothing but losses.
A deeper problem lies in the way the system treats suspicion as guilt. A traveller can be barred from leaving the country because of any registered FIR, even if the case is old or disputed. Courts do not review these stops in real time. An officer simply says your name is flagged in the system, a remark travellers say is sometimes used to signal counter-setting without openly asking for money. A land dispute, a neighbourhood quarrel or a ten-year-old complaint can derail a work contract or a family trip. The result is a quiet erosion of Article 15 of the Constitution, which states that every citizen has the right to leave Pakistan. Many travellers have learned this the hard way at airport counters where there is no appeal, no supervisor and no written explanation.
Entire districts in Gujrat and Sialkot now feel targeted. The zone that produces both legal workers and irregular migrants has become the face of the crackdown. The Gujrat Chamber of Commerce and Industry has raised concerns that its businessmen are being profiled because of their home addresses. This region sends billions in annual remittances and sustains countless households. Yet its residents face the strongest scrutiny. Even passengers flying from Karachi with Punjab passports report long interviews and repeated document checks with first-time travellers saying they are often not allowed to leave. The burden of suspicion has settled on a region that has long supported Pakistan’s economy.
The confusion deepened in late 2025 when rumours spread about new paperwork for workers. The Protector of Emigrants system had already struggled with delays and fake stamps. Then came talk of a fresh requirement. People were told to bring affidavits signed by Grade 17 officers stating they would not seek asylum abroad. Many complied out of fear. Some were still offloaded and some were denied boarding unless they paid bribes. Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain denied any such rule existed. The damage, however, was done. Workers now prepare stacks of unnecessary documents because they do not trust what they are told at airports.
The experience of being offloaded is blunt. Passengers are taken aside without fuss. Bags are returned. Tickets expire. Officials repeat that it is an order from the FIA. The financial hit can be severe. A worker bound for Riyadh may lose the savings of an entire family. A trader may miss a fair or a contract signing that he spent months organising. A family travelling for Umrah may forfeit hotel and transport bookings. Many have taken loans or sold land to fund these trips. They leave the airport holding cancelled passports and a sense of despair.
One question remains central. Has this heavy screening reduced human trafficking. There is no clear sign that it has. Networks that once used airports now move people through Balochistan and the Iran border. Others rely on sea routes that bypass major airports entirely. Meanwhile, anxiety among legal travellers has grown. The cost of lost flights, lost jobs and lost trust is immense. The crackdown appears to have shifted routes rather than solved the problem.
Officials promise reforms. Plans for a digital pre-clearance portal are underway. Both Chaudhry Salik Hussain and FIA Director General Riffat Mukhtar have spoken of new guidelines to stop abuse of power. Yet promises do little without transparency. Travellers need written reasons when they are denied boarding. They need a quick way to appeal unfair decisions. They need to know that an officer’s hunch cannot block their right to travel. Until these safeguards exist, public trust will remain low.
This moment has raised a constitutional debate. Courts in Lahore and Sindh now hear petitions that challenge offloading without due process. Lawyers argue that denying exit on the basis of accusation, not conviction, violates the spirit of the law. The state has a duty to fight trafficking with seriousness. It does not have the right to treat entire communities as suspects or to let airport counters become unchallenged centres of authority.
Pakistan’s overseas workers sent home nearly thirty billion dollars in 2024 and 2025. These workers are not a burden. They are the country’s lifeline. Protecting them means respecting their rights, enforcing fair rules and using intelligence-driven policing. It requires targeted action against real smugglers and real networks, not blunt profiling at gates.
Conclusion
Pakistan needs strong measures against trafficking, but strength does not come from suspicion alone. A system that humbles legal travellers cannot build public trust. A visa should mean something. A citizen should know that the right to leave home is secure. Until that day arrives, too many Pakistanis will walk into airports with hope and return with cancelled dreams.
A migration analyst explains that “the state can curb trafficking without casting doubt on every legitimate traveller, and any system that makes lawful movement uncertain ultimately weakens public confidence.
This article was first published on Global Voices on December 2, 2025. globalvoices.org
Posts
