ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office said on Sunday that United Arab Emirates authorities had assured Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi that restrictions on the issuance of visas to Pakistanis are temporary and related to the coronavirus outbreak.
Qureshi was in Abu Dhabi on a two-day visit last week, which came at a time when international media was reporting the UAE had stopped issuing new visas to citizens of 13 mostly Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan.
“Foreign Minister Qureshi was assured that the visa restrictions were temporary in nature and were imposed due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic,” the Pakistani foreign office said.
It cited a statement by UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, which reaffirmed the UAE’s “appreciation” of the Pakistani community and their “active contribution to the growth and prosperity of the country.”
The UAE is home to 1.2 million Pakistanis and the second-largest host to overseas Pakistani workers and source of foreign remittances, after Saudi Arabia.
“During the visit of the Foreign Minister, the two sides acknowledged Pakistani community’s positive contribution to the UAE’s success story,” the Pakistani foreign office said on Thursday, after Qureshi’s meetings with Al-Nahyan and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of the emirate of Dubai.
