THE NEW YORK TIMES: As Pakistan mediates between the U.S. and Iran, its ties to the Emirates have deteriorated. Pakistani workers say they are now being sent home en masse.
Pakistan has been trying to help end the war in Iran, but that effort is now creating problems with one of its longtime partners, the United Arab Emirates.
The rich Persian Gulf country has started a large-scale expulsion of Pakistani workers, threatening to cut off a vital source of jobs for Pakistan.
The Emirates appears to be upset that Pakistan has not condemned Iranian strikes on the Emirates more forcefully while it is trying broker a peace deal between the United States and Iran. The Emirates has borne the brunt of those attacks and has been hit by thousands of Iranian missiles and drones strikes.
The New York Times interviewed more than 20 Pakistani Shiites who worked in the Emirates as employees of Emirati companies. All said they were suddenly arrested, detained and deported in the past month.
Eight people with businesses based in the Emirates said their Pakistani employees had been deported in recent weeks.
Shiite religious leaders in Pakistan estimate as many as thousands of Shiite Pakistanis have been deported from the Emirates since mid-April. Pakistan’s 35 million Shiites, who have deep spiritual ties to Iran, have often faced sectarian violence in Pakistan, where the majority of people are Sunni Muslims.
The reasons for the expulsions are unclear, and both countries claim their ties are strong. » | Elian Peltier, Zia ur-Rehman and Vivian Nereim | Elian Peltier reported from Islamabad, Pakistan; Zia ur-Rehman from Kohat District in the country’s northwest, and Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. | Friday, May 8, 2026
