Oman deported last month 608 Pakistanis loaded in two cargo boats who were staying there illegally. These boats were heavily overloaded and living conditions on boat as narrated by passengers were pathetic eg. there was only one life saving boat available.
Entering or staying in a foreign country is an illegal act which in no way can be appreciated. But point is can under any international recognized law a person having entered into a country illegally or legally committing an offence/crime be sent back on “cargo boats” instead of regular airline, ship or ferry service. The deporting country can to my knowledge send such people on a regular airline claiming reimbursement of repatriation expenses through diplomatic channels. Leave our embassies lethargy towards their own nationals. Dr. Mubashar Hassan once stated that behaviour of Pakistan diplomats abroad with their own nationals was below humanity. In international press of 04.12.2003 there is a news items that due to some family problem (between a Belgian mother and Iranian father) two sisters (14 and 6 years) took refuge in Belgium Embassy in Iran as they wanted to go to Belgium to live with mother. Belgian Foreign Minister personally was aware of this matter and stated that his government was trying to solve the problem with the help of Iranian government but if need be he would personally fly to Iran for this purpose. A Foreign Minister just for two people leaving his country and in our case our Embassy does not care for 600 lives. Our Embassy appeared to had no interest with lives of hundreds for arranging flying them by airline for later recovery of the expenses from families as state debit let alone where is the money collected from overseas Pakistanis in the name of community service. On the other hand we are told Arabs are our friends, they have increased import of Pakistan labour and shown interest to accommodate more Pakistanis {practically number of Pakistanis is decreasing in Middle East].