Why Europe should be worried about Pakistan’s terror ecosystem
Washington: Pakistan’s labour corridor to the Persian Gulf, marked by isolated compounds and informal religious networks, serves as a breeding ground for radicalisation and transnational recruitment, combining sectarian influences with worker vulnerabilities, a report said on Saturday.
It added that returnees reinforce Pakistan’s terror ecosystems like Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Taiba, while onward migrants through Turkey-Balkans or Libya routes create blind spots in Europe’s counter-radicalisation frameworks, exposing a stealth security vector that remains largely unmonitored.
“Managed through Pakistan’s Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment, the system has evolved into a structured pipeline dominated by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, alongside substantial irregular flows. Policymakers traditionally view this migration through an economic lens, and focus on labour rights and employment cycles, but emerging security assessments reveal a critical oversight. A security vector also permeates the Pakistan-Persian Gulf labour corridor,” a report in the US-based think tank ‘Middle East Forum’ detailed.
According to the report, between late 2016 and early 2017, Saudi Arabia expelled around 40,000 Pakistani nationals for alleged links to the terrorist organisation Islamic State and complicity in terror plots, including a foiled bombing attack at the Jeddah Stadium, or for being considered a high-security risk. Additionally, 82 Pakistani individuals were taken into the custody of Saudi intelligence agencies.
“Between 2012 and 2015, Gulf Cooperation Council states repatriated over 240,000 individuals to Pakistan, most of whom originated from districts with intense terrorist activity. Pakistan never conducted systematic debriefing of these individuals. Through mixing the ideologies of the Gulf with their unresolved grievances in Pakistan, the returnees have joined groups like Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Taiba,” the report detailed.
The report highlighted that while Europe seldom figures in debates on Pakistan-Persian Gulf migration, it should be amid the security concerns.
“For European security agencies, perhaps, there is less significance to how a person arrived in Europe than their ideological proclivities. A number of Pakistani nationals who attempt crossings have spent years in labour camps that promote extreme interpretations of Islam. Often, ‘Gulf-shaped’ outlooks; go undetected as part of risk assessments. After they arrive in Europe, they connect with other Pakistanis through community organisations and charitable groups, who then connect the migrants to clerics trained in the Gulf, thereby reproducing exegesis they learned abroad,” the report noted.