Interior Minister Naqvi Reports On Eu Migration Agreements In Rome

On March 1, 2026, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif received a briefing from Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi regarding the outcomes of two significant multilateral meetings held in Europe aimed at addressing illegal migration and enhancing cooperation. Notably, Naqvi attended a four-nation interior ministers' meeting in Rome, which included counterparts from Italy, Spain, and Greece, as well as a six-country summit in Poland with ministers from Latvia, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland. Both conferences resulted in agreements to expedite legal work permits for Pakistani nationals, with Poland committing to reserving up to 2,000 seasonal work permits for vetted Pakistani nationals in 2027, contingent on compliance with EU skills-matching rules. Naqvi reported a remarkable 47% decrease in illegal travel by Pakistani nationals to Europe, a statistic that garnered praise from participating countries. He stated, "The member countries lauded Pakistan’s performance for showing forty-seven percent decline in illegal travelling of the Pakistani nationals towards the European countries and human trafficking," highlighting the effectiveness of Pakistan's recent crackdown on human smuggling networks, which dismantled over 120 trafficking cells along the Pak-Afghan border.