10,000 Pakistanis sought UK asylum on student visas, NA panel told

ISLAMABAD: Federal Investigation Agency Director General Dr Usman Anwar told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior on Tuesday that 10,000 Pakistanis travelled to the United Kingdom on student visas and later applied for political asylum.

The disclosure was made during a committee meeting chaired by MNA Raja Khurram Nawaz. The session was briefed on illegal immigration, passport policy and proposed changes to criminal laws.

The issue came days after British High Commissioner to Pakistan Jane Marriott raised concern over the growing number of Pakistani nationals seeking political asylum in the UK. She said Pakistanis were now among the leading nationalities in such applications and expressed regret that many cases were tied to misinformation and exploitation by unauthorised intermediaries rather than genuine eligibility.

Briefing on illegal immigration

Dr Anwar told the committee that people travelling abroad through illegal means were damaging Pakistan’s image, adding that the matter had been taken up with Islamabad by several countries, including members of the European Union.

He said 580 Pakistanis who had gone to Belarus had not returned, while 7,000 others travelled to Azerbaijan on visit visas and also did not come back. He further informed the committee that 175 arrested Pakistanis had been sent back from Libya.

According to the FIA chief, a fresh human trafficking route has also surfaced through Malaysia and Uzbekistan. He said that during 2025, authorities offloaded 39,786 people attempting to travel abroad without documents, while more than 3,000 were stopped from leaving because of the stop list and Interpol alerts.

Dr Anwar also said there had been a 75% decline in organised begging and a 31% reduction in the use of forged documents.

Government response and passport policy

State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry told the committee that illegal immigration from Pakistan had fallen by 47%, a decrease he said had been confirmed by both Europe and the United States.

He said additional facilitation measures would be introduced in the coming days and that a new policy had been prepared for lost passports. Chaudhry said repeatedly reporting a passport as lost was treated as suspicious and each such case was investigated. He also told the committee that incidents involving the sale of identity occur worldwide.

Proposed legal reforms

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar briefed the committee on planned reforms to criminal laws and said the matter should be discussed in detail after the budget.

Tarar said that while laws dating back 80 years were not necessarily flawed and were still being implemented effectively in many countries, revisions had become necessary in light of modern technology and changing requirements.