Pakistan moves to criminalise begging after complaints from foreign countries

• Amendments suggests adding "organised beggary" to existing law.
• "Definition covers people who exhibits with object of obtaining alms."
• Criminalises soliciting, receiving of alms in under any pretence.
  

ISLAMABAD: Addressing complaints by foreign countries, the federal government has decided to criminalise begging by amending the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2018.

The interior ministry has submitted the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons (Amendment) Bill, 2024, aimed at tweaking the existing legislation by adding "organised beggary" to its Section 3.

The proposed changes to the relevant act come as the issue of begging has been raised by multiple countries with Pakistan's diplomatic missions in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations, Iraq and Malaysia also confirming it.

Noting that Pakistanis who visit these countries Hajj, Umrah, and other religious pilgrimages have been found involved in begging, the diplomatic missions, as claimed by the amendment draft, have urged Pakistani authorities to take stern action against those involved in begging and the gangs behind them.

"The agents and gangs who are involved in this practice easily dodge prosecution as beggary is not a crime in any law entrusted to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The sensitivity of the issue demands an urgent need to make beggary a crime," reads the draft introduced in the upper house on January 28.

The proposed amendments further expands on "organised beggary" saying that it includes "an act of a person to allure, entice or coerce a person intentionally, knowingly, by use of force, fraud or without fraudulent intention to indulge or to be indulged in soliciting or receiving alms directly, indirectly or on any pretext".

It also criminalises soliciting or receiving of alms "in a public place, whether or not, under any pretence, such as fortune-telling, performing tricks, selling articles or frequently by knocking at the window panes of vehicles waiting on signals or sometimes forcefully cleaning the windscreen of vehicles in order to seek alms".

The tweaks further say that people having no visible means of subsistence and wandering about or remaining in any public place in such condition or manner which raises a presumption that the person doing so subsists by soliciting or receiving alms are also to be fall within the ambit of organised beggary along with those who enter any private premises for the purposes of soliciting or receiving alms.

The definition also covers people who exhibit with the object of obtaining or extorting alms, any sore, wound, injury, deformity or disease, whether of a human being or of an animal or allows oneself to be used as an exhibit for the purpose of soliciting or receiving alms.

Beggars issue

The suggested changes to prevent begging can be considered with regard to the confirmation by Secretary Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development who, while briefing Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development in July 2024, said that Saudi Arabia had demanded Pakistan not to send beggars, sick people and people without skills.

In November 2024, the government went on to put the names of 4,300 beggars on the Exit Control List (ECL) following a meeting between Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Saudi Arabia's Ambassador Nawaf bin Saeed Ahmed Al Maliki.

Hundreds of Pakistanis have been deported in recent weeks from gulf countries due to issues ranging from irregularities in documentation, failure to insufficient travel funds, procedural shortcomings, involvement in crimes, begging etc.

Three beggars were deported from Saudi Arabia on emergency papers and arrested in Karachi, whereas another beggar returning from Umrah was arrested for passport forgery after being placed on the stop list, The News reported on January 15.

Meanwhile, passenger blacklisted for being a beggar in Saudi Arabia was taken off the plane while going to Bahrain this week.

Meanwhile, in its bid to address human smuggling concerns, the government has also imposed strict screening measures at the airports with the FIA directing its deputy directors of immigration to be extra vigilant while clearing passengers for boarding planes.

Officials have been directed to strictly monitor first-time foreign passengers between the ages of 15 and 40 during the immigration process in nine cities.

Especially, the young passengers travelling via two specific airlines, including Ethiopian Airlines,  should undergo strict screening process, the FIA said in its advisory.

As per the directives, an improved system of profiling passengers travelling to Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Senegal, Kenya, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Mauritania, Iraq, Turkiye, Qatar, Kuwait, and Kyrgyzstan should be implemented.

The immigration officials have been directed to ensure strict monitoring and profiling of passengers residing in Mandi Bahauddin, Gujarat, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Bhimber, Jhelum, Toba Tek Singh, Hafizabad and Sheikhupura should be completed. 

All documents, including return tickets, hotel bookings, of such passengers should be thoroughly scrutinised, the order said.

Moreover, the documents should be scrutinised with special attention to visit or tourist visas, and strict interviews be conducted to ascertain the financial arrangements of suspicious passengers along with their travel purpose.