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    • Frontex Executive Director visits Pakistan to enhance border management cooperation

    2026-09-17

    Frontex Executive Director Hans Leijtens has concluded his first visit to Pakistan. He held talks with the country’s Minister of Interior to explore opportunities for providing support to Pakistan through targeted activities on the country’s road of reforming its border management system.  

    On 15 September, Hans Leijtens met Mohsin Naqvi, the Federal Minister for Interior  of Pakistan, while already on the 14 September the Executive Director was received by the Additional Secretary Europe from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs followed by a roundtable with high level officials from the Ministry of Interior and its entities chaired by Ministry of Interior’s Special Secretary. On the following day, the Executive Director met his counterpart, Director General of the Federal Investigation Agency responsible for border and immigration control Dr Usman Anwar.  

    The sides reiterated their commitment to further deepen their relationship in line with Pakistan’s efforts to curb irregular migration and smuggling networks. The discussions covered areas of cooperation including information exchange, risk analysis, document security as well as expert dialogue, and capacity building. 

    Frontex recognises the significant efforts and reforms undertaken by Pakistan to curb irregular migration, fight smuggling networks works and document fraud. In recent years, the country’s authorities have introduced a series of significant border management measures, including a new national action plan against migrant smuggling and, with the EU support, established a Risk Analysis Unit – using the same risk analysis model as Frontex – within the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The FIA is the national authority responsible for border control and leads all national actions against the smuggling of migrants, human trafficking and combatting cross-border crime networks.  

    These efforts have yielded results that are visible on the ground at Europe’s borders. In the first 5 months of 2026, 1500 irregular border crossings by Pakistani nationals were recorded at the EU external borders, down from some 2 800 in the same period of 2025.

    The change since 2023 is significant. Fewer people are putting their lives in the hands of smugglers to reach Europe, and much of the credit belongs to our Pakistani colleagues. Hans Leijtens, Frontex Executive Director

    Frontex is seeking to develop a structured cooperation framework with Pakistani authorities enabling a faster and more comprehensive response to common security challenges. It will cover areas such as information exchange, expert dialogue, training in border management, document security and risk analysis, with guarantees on fundamental rights and personal data protection built in.

    The networks we are fighting operate across continents, and so does our cooperation: on risk analysis, on document security, on returns, and always with full respect for fundamental rights. What I take home from Islamabad is that we are working on the same problems, and that we can do more of that work together. Hans Leijtens, Frontex Executive Director

    The visit is part of the broader EU-Pakistan Migration and Mobility Dialogue aimed at managing migration flows, enhancing cooperation on legal  pathways and labour mobility and addressing issues related to cross-border crime. Frontex has been working closely with Pakistan since 2019. The Agency stepped up its engagement by deploying a liaison officer to Islamabad in May 2025. In July this year, Frontex document experts trained FIA officers who supervise border control at Pakistan’s international airports and land border crossing points to detect forged documents. Pakistani experts have also participated in Frontex workshops on cross-border crime. 

    In the area of returns, the role of the Agency is to assist the EU and its Member States with return counselling, identification and acquisition of travel documents for the returnees and return operations by air. Since April 2022, under the EU Reintegration Programme (EURP), the Agency has been providing readmission and reintegration assistance to Pakistani nationals returning from the EU, with support of a local partner, the Women Empowerment Literacy and Development Organisation (WELDO).  

    Learn more about Frontex EU Reintegration Programme: Episode 3 - Return to Pakistan with support of WELDO - Shoe shop