According to Iraqi and Pakistani official accounts, 50,000 Pakistanis have gone missing in Iraq after performing a Shiite religious pilgrimage during the Ashura festival in Karbala.
The story was raised by Pakistan’s Minister of Religious Affairs Chaudhry Hussain, who said 50,000 Pakistanis have gone missing in Iraq in recent years.
Iraqi workers come from many different nationalities, including Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indians, Nepalese and Filipinos. They work as restaurant waiters, cooks, street sweepers, construction workers and other menial jobs, earning between $15 and $25 a day, depending on their occupation and the area they work in.
According to Iraqi law, foreigners working in Iraq must obtain work and residence permits, which are renewable every one or two years. These can only be obtained if several conditions are met, and they must have an employer who is responsible for submitting applications for workers to work for them.
In an official statement, the Iraqi Ministry of Labor said there are one million foreign workers in Iraq, but only 71,000 of them are registered with official documents.
Abdul Amir Taqi, director-general of Iraq’s Ministry of Labor, said: Media Line There are more than 100,000 Pakistanis living in Iraq, most of whom work in crafts, construction, delivery, restaurants and other unskilled jobs.
Taqi added, “The 50,000 people mentioned by the Pakistani minister did not come just during this season. We checked with the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and found that the number of people who visited Iraq from Pakistan during the Ashura season in 2024 was 88,427, of which 84,251 were able to enter the country. This means that only 4,176 are still in the country.”
He also said, “We are facing a big problem with these people. They come to Iraq for religious visits and then enter the labor market, working illegally, without permits and for lower wages than Iraqis. This will create an imbalance in Iraq’s labor market.”
Muharram is one of the most important religious tourism seasons, especially for Shiites in Iraq, as it marks the anniversary of the murder of Imam Hussein, and is celebrated for two months in Iraq, from the 1st of Muharram to the 20th of Safar, the Islamic New Year.
During Ashura, millions of Shiites from around the world will travel to Iraq to mark the occasion in the cities of Karbala and Najaf, south of Baghdad, which according to Shiite belief are the shrines of Imam Hussein and his father, Imam Ali. According to official Iraqi statistics, six million Shiites from outside Iraq will visit Iraq during Ashura in 2022.
About a month ago, Iraq opened its doors to foreign tourists taking part in religious commemorations, with delegations including nationals of Pakistan, Bangladesh and other Arab and Islamic countries.
Following announcing the launch of an investigation into Pakistani visitors missing in Iraq, Iraqi authorities have made multiple announcements indicating the arrest of several Pakistani nationals in several regions and cities in Iraq.
According to the statements, several Pakistanis were arrested in Erbil province, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, more than 500 km from Karbala where the Shiite visitors were. Another gang of bandits was arrested on the international highway linking Baghdad and Amman, more than 350 km from Karbala, and another group was arrested in the capital, Baghdad, 100 km from Karbala.
“Security measures will be stepped up for visitors from several countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and other Asian countries,” Iraqi Police Brigadier General Shamil al-Ghalili told The Media Line.
Al Ghalili added: “Iraq only issues entry visas for visits, but there are separate regulations for work. However, Karbala receives a large number of visitors and it is not possible to control their numbers entirely, leading to Pakistanis entering other regions and governorates through the desert and unofficial routes in search of work.”
On whether these Pakistanis pose a threat by joining terrorist organisations, Shamir said, “We are not ruling out anything. They come for money and if they don’t find money in work, they may join one of the terrorist organisations who pay people to work with them. Just having someone in the country illegally is a threat and anything is possible.”
What the Pakistani minister said in the media contradicted Brigadier General Shamir’s statement, with the Pakistani minister of religious affairs confirming that these people were seeking “jobs and money” and were not terrorists and would not join any terrorist organisation.
Mahdi al-Haidari, the owner of a company that transports Shiite pilgrims to the holy sites, told The Media Line: “We transport Pakistani tourists by plane across the Iranian border to Iraq. Those who come by plane pay about $1,200 for a 10-day visit, while those who come by car pay $800.”
Al-Haidari added: “We take their passports and leave them with us for several reasons, including to ensure that the pilgrims do not lose them during Ashura rituals or in the crowds. We also want to ensure that they leave Iraq as we are responsible for them.”
He added: “Indeed, some of these pilgrims did not return and we could not find them either in their hotels or in their places of residence. We do not know where they went but we have reported this to the Iraqi authorities.”
Bashir Al Najafi
Accusations have emerged that a Shiite cleric named Bashir al-Najafi is behind the problem, a Pakistani-born cleric who lives in Iraq’s Najaf province, one of the holiest cities for Shiite Muslims.
Iraqi politicians and political parties have accused cleric Bashir Najafi of making deals with tourism companies that fly visitors to the holy sites, allowing them to work in Iraq and receive a per-visit payment.
“The cleric promised the Pakistanis Iraqi citizenship in exchange for $10,000 each. These accusations are documented and there is evidence,” Shahab al-Khalidi, a prominent Iraqi politician, told The Media Line.
Al Khalidi added: “He also assured that Pakistanis looking to find work in Iraq would be given $2,000 each in coordination with tourism companies responsible for receiving Pakistani tourists.”
He added: “This was done in collaboration with Iraqi politicians and corrupt officials. This is not new, everyone knows this, but no one is taking legal action against Bashir Najafi because he is a Shiite cleric and cannot be touched.”
Al-Khalidi added: “Some of these people are already working as bodyguards for Shiite cleric Bashir Najafi for financial gain. My prediction is that new militias will emerge in Iraq made up of Pakistanis who will join the Popular Mobilization Forces (Iran-backed militias) and receive state support.”
The witness said, Media Line Several thousand Pakistanis are said to be living in illegal housing built on government land on the outskirts of Najaf, and several videos have been circulated showing these areas inhabited by Pakistanis.
Ahmed al-Hadi, an Iraqi from Najaf, told The Media Line newspaper: “Houses have been built in several areas, including Al-Mukarama district, where Shiite cleric Bashir al-Najaf lives and where Pakistanis also live. Police and army vehicles do not enter there.”
Al-Hadi added: “There are several other areas where houses are being built. These houses are illegal and are made only of bricks. The roofs are usually made of palm leaves or aluminum. Some of them are located near the farm of cleric Bashir al-Najaf and the Najaf Sea.”
He continued, “I saw a group of Pakistanis arrive there. They arrived in trucks and as soon as they got off they started building their houses. Within a few hours these houses were completed. You could see from a distance that they were nondescript.”
He added: “We saw them working in the farm of cleric Bashir al-Najafi. No one knows what they are doing but we know that they are the ones the Iraqi government is looking for. But some of them are carrying weapons and are standing guard on the borders of these areas and farms so police vehicles cannot enter them.”
The office of Shiite cleric Bashir al-Najafi responded to The Media Line’s inquiries about the accusations against him in a short message saying: “Bashir al-Najafi has no idea what is going on. He is just busy with religious matters.”
“These practices have become commonplace and are aimed at changing the demographics of Iraq’s Najaf province. They bring Shiites from outside Iraq, pass them off as Iraqi with fake IDs and passports and count them as Iraqis,” Iraqi politician Ali Mahdi told The Media Line.
He added: “The original residents of Najaf have been displaced to other areas and these people are coming to replace them. The Iraqi government must take immediate steps to get them out of Iraq.”
“So far it seems the Pakistanis are only here for work, but as they are Shiite Muslims it is not unlikely that they will later be recruited into fighting by the PMA or other Shiite militias,” Osama al-Shuaibi, an Iraqi journalist specializing in international affairs, told The Media Line.
Al-Shuaibi also said, “It cannot be ruled out that they will be recruited to fight in Syria or Lebanon. Iran is using everything to its advantage, but for now what is happening is chaos and Iraqis will pay the price, either by losing their jobs in the labor market or suffering from the terrorism of these people.”
Pakistani media quoted Pakistan’s Minister of Religious Affairs Zulfiqar Haider as saying that a bureau for visitors to Iraq and Iran would be set up, similar to the Pakistan bureau that organises pilgrim trips to Mecca.
