50,000 Pakistanis went missing in Iraq, minister says

Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Chaudhry Salik Hussain said on Wednesday that 50,000 Pakistanis who traveled to Iraq for religious tourism did not return, without specifying the time frame for these disappearances, Arab News reported.

Thousands of Pakistani pilgrims visit religious shrines in Iran, Iraq, and Syria annually.

During a briefing to the Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, the minister stated that the government had developed a policy to regulate these visits to Middle Eastern states, which is awaiting federal cabinet approval.

The report mentioned that the Pakistani government wanted to encourage a group system for pilgrims visiting these countries and noted that Iraq has its own monitoring system for pilgrims at its borders.

The committee also reviewed the challenges faced by pilgrims at the Taftan border between Pakistan and Iran, a common crossing point for those visiting shrines in the three Middle Eastern states.

Senator Raja Nisar Abbas, a member of the Senate committee, noted that most people who go missing in other countries travel there illegally. He mentioned that pilgrims’ travel documents are collected at the border.