LONDON: Deportation flights of the UK third home office to Pakistan have been canceled within a year.
The latest flight is because taking off on September 8 brought 25 people, according to a report at The Guardian.
This may be too excessive, failed asylum seekers or Pakistani citizens with criminal penalties in the UK.
Pakistan refused to receive a flight of home office charter because England had not released Pakistan from the British Covid red trip list, Guardian said, quoting sources.
But the Pakistani High Commission in London has denied this.
“The problem of the red list of Covid travel was discussed between the two parties during a short visit of the British foreign secretary to Pakistan.
However, the statement that there was a relationship between flight cancellation and the red list was incorrect,” it was a word in the statement to TOI.
Pakistan has been on the Red British list since April due to concerns about Delta variants and, unlike India, has not been removed, which means that British passengers who arrive from Pakistan must spend 10 days in Mandatory Hotel Quarantine and Pakistani citizens are not allowed to enter England.
Two other deportation flights to Pakistan were canceled on October 2020, The Guardian stated, quoting FOI’s request response.
This flight was not given permission to get land by Pakistan, TOI understand.
British media speculated at that time because Britain had not been repatriated by former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was in London, facing charges of corruption in Pakistan.
Every time the home office canceled the planned deportation charter flight, the price, British taxpayers were around £ 100,000 (Rs 1 Crore.) Headquarters refused to confirm or deny the Guardian report.
A home office spokesman told Toi: “People who come to this country and commit crimes must be expected to be removed.
That is why we regularly operate charter flights to various countries – to eliminate foreign violators, and those who are not entitled to be on country.” Since January 2019 England has removed 8,441 people.