News
May 15, 2026
'Our Only Crime Is Being Shia': Pakistani Workers Say UAE Surveillance Led to DeportationsIslamabad: The first deportations passed almost unnoticed: a few laborers returning unexpectedly to their villages and towns across Pakistan , without luggage or prior warning to their families.
But within weeks, reports of similar expulsions began surfacing across the country. Families started receiving sons, brothers, and fathers, mostly Shia Muslims, who had spent most of their adult lives working in the United Arab Emirates - men who said they were suddenly detained and deported without explanation.
Several Shia community leaders in many parts of Pakistan told Middle East Eye that thousands of Pakistani workers, most of them Shia Muslims employed in the UAE for years, have been deported since mid-April under opaque circumstances.
Many of those expelled said that the UAE authorities never formally explained why they were deported. However, deportees and community representatives believe the campaign reflects mounting suspicion towards Shia communities amid escalating regional tensions involving Iran .
“They did not tell us any reason,” said Hussain Turi, a 45-year-old taxi driver from Pakistan’s Khurram district near the Afghan border, where local community elders have received nearly 200 residents to his village alone from the UAE in recent months. “But we understood. Our only crime is being Shia.”
The deportees described a sudden and highly opaque process. Several workers said they were summoned to local police stations without explanation, detained for days at detention centers and in jails, and later placed on flights to Pakistan without access to legal representation, formal charges, or any meaningful avenue to appeal their deportations.
'They did not tell us any reason. But we understood. Our only crime is being Shia', said Hussain Turi, a Shia taxi driver in UAE.
Many had spent decades working in construction, transport, and low-paid service sector jobs across the UAE, sending remittances that supported entire families back home.
Similar concerns have also surfaced in Qatar , where Pakistani Shia laborers faced deportation earlier this year under comparable circumstances.
The issue drew wider attention after reports of expulsions appeared in international media outlets and social media.
Pakistan’s government, however, has strongly denied allegations that Gulf states are specifically targeting Shia workers.
“Having gone through the details and data, it is necessary to state that all such reporting is malafide and part of vicious propaganda by vested interests,” Pakistan’s interior ministry said in a statement on 8 May . It added that no country- or sect-specific deportations are being carried out, including in the UAE.
Despite the official denial, interviews with community leaders, deportees, and local activists across several Pakistani provinces suggest that Shia workers have been disproportionately affected since at least mid-April.
Some Shia leaders, including prominent cleric Allama Amin Shaheedi, estimate that as many as 15,000 Pakistanis may have been deported or denied re-entry in recent months, though the absence of official data and the opaque nature of the deportations make it difficult to independently verify the scale of the expulsions.
Indian Shia organizations, including the All India Shia Personal Law Board, have also raised concerns regarding the detention and treatment of Indian Shias by authorities in several Gulf countries, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
But while the deportations have taken place within the context of the war in Iran, Shia Muslims described to Middle East Eye that they had been surveilled for years.
Surveillance, profiling and deportation
Most deportees requested anonymity or asked to be identified only by their surnames, fearing public exposure could permanently destroy any possibility of returning to the Gulf to recover savings, businesses, vehicles, or unpaid wages left behind.
Interviews conducted by MEE with deportees across the country revealed strikingly similar accounts of detention and removal.
'They approached me directly and asked for my ID. They already knew exactly who I was', said Qaisar, a Shia Muslim deported to Pakistan.
Many said they received phone calls from local police in Dubai or Abu Dhabi instructing them to report to nearby police stations without explanation.
Once there, they said, they were detained, briefly interrogated, and transferred to Dubai’s Al Awir detention center, where they were held for between four and ten days before deportation. Most said they were placed on Flydubai flights to Karachi or Faisalabad.
Several deportees described what they believed was a sophisticated surveillance and profiling system focused on Shia religious identity.
Deportees allege that authorities identify individuals through mandatory security procedures at imambargahs (Shia congregation halls), where worshippers must scan their Emirates ID cards to enter. Such biometric checks are rarely, if ever, imposed at Sunni mosques, according to interviewees and community advocates who are familiar with the practice.
Community advocates and deportees suggest that biometric information, identity records, and attendance data collected at Shia religious venues over the years may have been used by security agencies to map networks of worshippers and identify individuals later detained for deportation.
While no official evidence independently confirms this data-sharing practice, personal accounts suggest a high level of tracking.
Qaisar, a deportee from the Chakwal District in the province of Punjab, described being intercepted inside Dubai Mall after being flagged via CCTV. “They approached me directly and asked for my ID,” he told MEE. “They already knew exactly who I was.” - Middle East Eye
Courtesy Middle East Eye
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