More than 500 Pakistanis, who were sent back to Turkey from Greece, have appealed the Pakistani authorities to help them return to their country. A migrant said that he and other four men have been detained by the Turkish authorities for the last two months. They are not deporting us to Pakistan, he said. On the other hand, the Turkish authorities have informed them that the Pakistani government has refused to accept them. Their CNIC numbers were sent to the Pakistani embassy but no response has been given yet. Earlier in December last year, Pakistan refused to allow about 30 migrants deported from Greece to get off a plane at Islamabad.
The charter plane later took off with the rejected returnees still aboard, after 19 others whom Pakistan deemed legitimate deportees were allowed to disembark. In 2014, about 21,000 Pakistanis who were in Europe without permission were ordered to return home. An estimated 50,000 Pakistanis travel legally to Europe for work each year.
Greece has been under pressure from EU partners to directly deport migrants arriving from Turkey instead of allowing them to go elsewhere in Europe. Last year, almost 900,000 people seeking asylum reached European shores, about four times the total in 2014, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said. Half of them were fleeing the fighting in Syria.