Colombo, Nov 17: Airline pilots today refused to fly more than a hundred Pakistani men who were being deported on charges of overstaying their visas, insisting that the men be handcuffed and escorted by guards. The men were to be flown home in a commercial passenger flight out of Sri Lanka today, but the pilots insisted on the men being handcuffed and escorted by two guards each, officials said.

"We don't have the resources to send two guards with each deportee," a prison official said. The Pakistan nationals were brought back to a jail here pending new arrangements to send them back.
The 102 men were the first batch of 254 Pakistani men sentenced to a year in jail in august for trying to leaving the island illegally and travelling to Europe.

Police said that the Pakistanis had been flown to Sri Lanka from Karachi legitimately and then driven to the island's south to board the ship which had been anchored about seven miles away from the coast, when they were caught.

Bureau Report