Nearly 400 Pakistani prisoners were repatriated by the United Arab Emirates, following an agreement between the governments of both countries to operate special flights.
A FlyDubai flight carrying 185 passengers left Dubai for Faisalabad on Tuesday evening at 5 pm while another flight left for Peshawar at 9 pm with another 188 inmates, Arab News quoted Ahmed Amjad Ali, Pakistan’s Consul General to Dubai as saying.
One of the flights held pardoned prisoners, Ali told Arab News.
“The Pakistan government will keep these passengers in quarantine for seven days upon arrival,” he said.
On April 18 and 19, two more flights are scheduled to carry stranded passengers home.
They were the UAE carriers’ first flights to Pakistan following last month’s suspension of international flights to curb the spread of coronavirus.
A statement released by the UAE embassy in Pakistan said these prisoners were serving their sentences for minor crimes in UAE jails.
