FIA Reveals 10,000 Pakistanis Sought UK Asylum After Student Visas

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency has informed a National Assembly committee that around 10,000 Pakistani nationals travelled to the United Kingdom on student visas and later applied for political asylum. The disclosure was made on Tuesday during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior in Islamabad.

The briefing, led by FIA Director General Dr Usman Anwar, focused on illegal migration, passport misuse, human trafficking routes and proposed reforms to Pakistan’s criminal justice framework. The committee meeting was chaired by MNA Raja Khurram Nawaz and brought together officials dealing with immigration enforcement and internal security policy.

According to the FIA chief, illegal migration is creating reputational problems for Pakistan as several foreign governments have raised concerns with Islamabad. He said the matter was no longer limited to a single destination, with Pakistani nationals also failing to return from countries such as Belarus and Azerbaijan after entering through legal or temporary routes.

Dr Anwar told the committee that 580 Pakistanis who travelled to Belarus had not returned, while nearly 7,000 Pakistanis entered Azerbaijan on visit visas and stayed back. He also said 175 Pakistani nationals arrested in Libya had been brought back, reflecting the wider challenge of irregular movement through risky migration corridors.

The FIA chief further warned that fresh human trafficking routes involving Malaysia and Uzbekistan had emerged. He said Pakistani authorities offloaded 39,786 people in 2025 for attempting to travel abroad without proper documents, while more than 3,000 others were stopped due to stop-list checks and Interpol alerts.

Officials also pointed to some improvement in enforcement. Dr Anwar said organised begging abroad had declined by 75 percent, while the use of fake documents had fallen by 31 percent. These figures were presented as evidence that tighter airport screening and intelligence-led interventions are beginning to show results.

State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry told the committee that illegal immigration from Pakistan had dropped by 47 percent, a decline he said was also acknowledged by Europe and the United States. He added that new facilitation measures would be introduced soon, including a revised policy for cases involving repeatedly lost passports.

The issue gained wider attention after British High Commissioner Jane Marriott recently expressed concern over the rising number of Pakistani asylum claims in the United Kingdom. She indicated that many cases appeared linked to misinformation and exploitation by unauthorised intermediaries rather than genuine eligibility, raising pressure on Pakistan to regulate agents and curb misleading migration advice.

The meeting also reviewed proposed legal reforms. Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said changes to decades-old criminal laws had become necessary because of modern technology and new investigative requirements. He told the committee that amendments to 55 laws related to criminal procedure had been proposed and would need detailed debate after the budget.

For Pakistan, the FIA disclosure carries diplomatic, social and economic implications. Irregular migration damages the country’s credibility, exposes young people to exploitation and increases pressure on legitimate students and workers seeking lawful opportunities abroad. The next step will depend on how quickly the government tightens oversight of travel agents, improves passport monitoring and builds safer legal pathways for overseas mobility.