56,000 Pakistani beggars get the boot from Saudi Arabia, soon after UAE restricts visas

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has deported 56,000 Pakistani beggars, as per news reports, less than a month after the United Arab Emirates put visa restrictions in place for Pakistanis because of concern over their role in criminal activities.

While some reports put the number of deportees at less than 56,000, the problem posed by Pakistani beggars in undeniable. In a huge embarrassment for Islamabad, tens of thousands of Pakistanis — all part of begging rackets — had to be offloaded before they could fly out to other countries.

A News18 report on December 18 said that Saudi Arabia had “deported around 56,000 Pakistani nationals for involvement in organised begging, Pakistani officials revealed….”

The report added that Islamabad had its hands full with the syndicated beggars. “In 2025 alone, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) offloaded 66,154 passengers from outbound flights to prevent organised begging rings and illegal migrants from leaving the country, according to official figures cited in local media reports,” it said.

This move comes shortly after the UAE limiting visa issuance to Pakistanis. Begging in the streets is completely illegal in the UAE.

A Times of India report on November 27 said, quoting the Pakistani publication Dawn, that Pakistan’s additional interior secretary Salman Chaudhry informed the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights that both the UAE and Saudi Arabia had “stopped short of imposing a ban on the Pakistani passport”.

Senator Samina Mumtaz Zehri was quoted as saying that the UAE measure was triggered by concern about Pakistanis “getting involved in criminal activities”.