Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Riffat Mukhtar Raja on Wednesday told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis that overall 56,000 Pakistanis have been deported from Saudi Arabia alone for begging.

DG FIA has revealed that thousands of Pakistanis have been deported from abroad in 2025 for various reasons.

He said that this year, Saudi Arabia sent back 24,000 and Dubai 6,000 people for begging, while Azerbaijan offloaded 2,500 Pakistanis with evidence.

DG FIA revealed that a fake football club sent a football team to Japan, in which a person who lost a leg also reached Japan.

After the investigation, it was found that the fake club had sent a team to Japan in 2022 as well.

The meeting also revealed incidents of going to Europe in the name of Umrah.

The DG FIA told the committee that this year, 24,000 people went to Cambodia, out of which 12,000 have not returned yet, while 2,500 out of 4,000 who went to Burma on tourist visas have not returned.

The briefing also revealed that Bengali citizens went to Europe illegally from Pakistan. Bengali citizens who went to Europe on Pakistani tourist visas were also arrested.

In the last three months, 450 people were caught at the Iranian border.

The DG FIA said that last year, Pakistan was among the top five countries in illegal travel to Europe, but due to effective policies, Pakistan has now been removed from this list.

Dubai and Germany have provided a visa-free facility for Pakistani official passports.

The Secretary Overseas told the meeting that Saudi Arabia has mega projects worth more than $1 trillion under Vision 2030, including NEOM City, Jeddah Central, Red Sea Global, King Salman Energy Park, Jeddah Tower, Riyadh Expo 2030 and FIFA World Cup 2034 projects.

Jobs in these projects are only for skilled people.

Pakistan produces about 400,000 skilled people every year, and the demand for labour abroad is high, while the number of university graduates is high, but the demand in the market is low.