Iranian national trying to travel to Dubai on fake documents arrested at Pakistani airport

In this file picture taken on March 30, 2015, Pakistani Airports Security Force (ASF) personnels stand guard at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi. (Photo courtesy: AFP/File)

• Pakistan’s immigration authorities arrested several Iranian citizens last year who wanted to go to Qatar, UAE on fake passports
• In 2018, a group of Iranian nationals were detained in Turbat who had repeatedly traveled to Arab countries on fake documents

KARACHI: Pakistan’s immigration authorities on Saturday detained an Iranian national traveling to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on fake documents at the Karachi airport, confirmed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in a statement.
Ameer Yousuf, who was planning to travel to Dubai on a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-213, was interrogated by the authorities who suspected his documents to be fake.
“During the questioning, he could not provide information on his family,” the FIA spokesperson said in a statement. “The accused failed to satisfy the authorities about his place of birth and other related questions.”
Yousaf was subsequently taken to the Anti Human Trafficking Cell in Karachi for further legal action, the spokesperson added.
According to his travel documents seen by Arab News, Yousuf got a fake passport from Pakistani city of Panjgur in southwester Balochistan province bordering Iran.
Last year in October, at least three Iranian nationals were arrested at the Karachi airport after failed attempts to travel to the UAE and Qatar on fake travel documents.
The suspects, Amir Ali and Abdul Samad, were planning to go to Sharjah while Hanif wanted to go to Doha from the southern Pakistani port city.
A day later, immigration officials at the Karachi airport also arrested three other Iranian citizens, Tayyab Raza, Afzal Ahmed and Hamza Maqsood, after their arrival from Iran.
“All three had stamped fake Australian visas on their passports,” the FIA spokesperson said in a statement issued on October 30, 2022.
The FIA also arrested 10 other Iranians from Karachi last September in what was described as a “comprehensive crackdown” in different parts of the city.
The FIA said at the time the foreign nationals obtained Pakistan’s identity cards and travel documents with the help of Pakistani and Iranian agents and wanted to travel to Qatar.
In 2018, 11 Iranian nationals were arrested at the Turbat International Airport in Pakistan’s Balochistan province with fake Pakistani identity cards and passports, which they had used to repeatedly travel to the Middle East since 2014.