Islamabad, April 2 (IANS) As many as 109 Pakistani nationals were among at least 2,722 persons from the Asia-Pacific region who died or disappeared around the world in 2025 while trying to enter other countries illegally, Pakistani media reported citing the latest stats released by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
This marked the second consecutive year when over 2,700 people have died across the world, exposing the persistent risks faced by migrants and an urgent need to strengthen protection for people on the move, according to the IOM statement, Pakistan's leading daily Dawn reported. The data was gathered under the 'IOM Missing Migrants Project 2026'.
The highest number of people who died or disappeared during migration — 1540 — were from Afghanistan, followed by 935 nationals from Myanmar, according to statistics collected by the IOM for Asia-Pacific. Pakistan stood at the third spot with 109 nationals followed by Bangladesh with 80 individuals. According to IOM, the actual number of deaths along these routes is likely to be higher due to the clandestine nature of irregular movements and difficulties in tracing migration fatalities, Dawn reported.
In March, Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) offloaded two passengers from a plane at the Multan International Airport over their alleged attempt to use umrah visa for entering Europe, local media reported.
A FIA spokesperson said that immigration staff took action at Multan airport during routine screening of outbound passengers. Two Pakistani nationals - Sikander Alam and Noor Islam - were heading to Saudi Arabia for performing Umrah. However, initial probe raised suspicions, prompting officials to refer them to secondary screening for detailed profiling, Dawn reported.
During further probe, the officials found Moroccan visas affixed to the passports of Alam and Islam. After questioning, Sikander Alam and Noor Islam said that their actual destination was Spain instead of Saudi Arabia.
The FIA officials said the latest case aligns with recent alerts issued by FIA headquarters about the rising cases in which people try to use Umrah visas as a cover to enter Europe illegally through Morocco.
After the findings, both passengers were offloaded from the plane and taken to the FIA Composite Circle in Multan for further probe.
