KARACHI, Oct 3: Nearly 600 Pakistanis returned home on Friday after being deported from Oman, where they had been serving terms for an illegal stay or defying visa regulations of the Arab country, officials said.

Most of the deported job-seekers, quite a few of them hailing from the rural areas of Punjab, said they paid thousands of rupees to cross the Pakistan-Iran border illegally from Balochistan.

However, officials said some of the deportees also served terms in prison for overstay in Muscat after the expiry of their visas.

“But most of them crossed the border illegally for better future prospects after paying huge amounts of money to local agents,” said Sarim Barney of Ansar Barney Trust, which facilitated the safe return of the deportees and extended a financial assistance to them so that they could reach their homes.

“A few of them are in such bad condition that they needed medical care at the earliest. One of them had suffered bullet injuries and he told us that one of his colleagues died when they encountered Oman security officials while they were crossing the border illegally.”

As the deportees arrived, more than a dozen officials of the immigration and passport circle of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) were deployed at the immigration check-post at Ghas Bandar, where the deportees were served meals.

The deportees said that during the two-day journey they had not been offered food by the crew of the ship chartered by the Muscat authorities for their return.

Upon their arrival, the deportees were briefly interviewed by FIA officials before they were allowed to return home. The officials said findings of the deportees’ statements suggested that the ultimate destination of the job-seekers was Dubai.

“Till some time back, the deportees were detained after their arrival by the FIA,” said Mir Mazhar, the FIA’s Assistant Director for Immigration Seaport. “But since the last few arrivals, there is a policy to release them after initial interrogations. Half of them have already left for their homes and we hope to complete the process late into the night.”

He said the FIA was compiling details about the agents of deportees who were paid for their illegal entry into Oman. Later, he said, these details would be handed over to the respective police stations for proper registration of cases.

“We have not yet reached the conclusion to determine the exact number of total agents who enabled these 598 people to cross the border at different times but they are definitely in dozens.”

Most deportees spoke of their harrowing experience of reaching Oman. They said that they were taken into pick-ups to reach an Iranian border town after two days where they stayed for a night. Then, the deportees said, they were taken to an abandoned jetty and were herded into small launches to reach a coastal area near Muscat after hours-long voyage.

Though a number of Pakistanis were arrested on such charges by Oman authorities and then released after months of detention every year, Sarim Barney of Ansar Barney Trust believes the authorities have failed to stop human-trafficking from the country.

“One should put a stop to the supply line of such illegal business,” he said. “Every year we struggle for the release of detained Pakistanis but unfortunately it never comes to an end as the number of arrested persons always far exceeds the number of people released by the Oman government.”