The FIA immigration staff at Karachi Airport offloaded 55 passengers bound for foreign destinations for various reasons. Passengers are incurring millions of rupees in daily losses due to non-refundable tickets being wasted after being offloaded.
According to immigration sources, four passengers heading to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman were offloaded because their names were on the stop list. One passenger traveling to Canada on a visit visa, two to Nepal, a girl to Turkey on a visit visa, one to Azerbaijan on a work visa, and ten Umrah passengers to Saudi Arabia were offloaded for lack of advance hotel bookings, relevant documents, or insufficient funds.
As reported by Afzal Nadeem Dogar of Geo News on Sunday, over the past 24 hours, a passenger on work visa to Azerbaijan, a permanent resident card holder to Switzerland, and four individuals traveling to Saudi Arabia for work were offloaded due to incomplete documentation.
Nine Umrah pilgrims heading to Saudi Arabia were offloaded for reasons such as lack of advance hotel bookings or insufficient funds. Other passengers offloaded included two going to Iraq on visit visas, four to Iraq on visit and work visas, two to Oman on work visas, one to Turkey on a tourist visa, one to Algeria on a work visa, two to the UAE on tourist visas, two to Malaysia on student and visit visas, one woman to Bahrain, and three passengers on e-visas to Sri Lanka, Uganda, and Singapore.
One passenger on a visit visa to Somaliland and another Umrah pilgrim were also offloaded. Sources report that many airlines issue non-refundable tickets, and passengers, especially laborers or low-income individuals, opt for these low-cost tickets. When offloaded, these tickets are wasted, causing daily losses of millions of rupees to passengers.
