More and more countries are starting to reject migrants, Pakistan being the latest to turn away 30 asylum-seekers to enforce its new policy not to take in deportees without mandated verification of their national status.

Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency detained deportees aboard a chartered flight from Greece, as ordered by the Pakistani Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who said that "the deportees were sent to Islamabad illegally and in violation of Pakistan's laws."

Greek Reporter said that an Interior Ministry spokesman stated to journalists that of the 49 people on board, only 19 were verified based on their documentation, and the remaining 30 had been sent back. The spokesman stressed, "The Ministry of Interior has made it clear that no unregistered deportee will be allowed to come to Pakistan."

He then continued, "if that happens they will be sent back despite having agreed on all issues in a recent meeting with the EU migration commissioner, one European country is violating Pakistani law, which is unacceptable."

The EU representative office in Pakistan said that those who boarded the aircraft had been given travel documents by the embassy, but many of them were refused entry due to the lack of an Interior Ministry-issued identification card. Reuters noted that in a statement, the EU rep said that officials were unable to verify this document: "Obviously EU member states do not have access to this internal information -- only Pakistan has."

The Guardian reported that this is just the latest in a conflict between EU and the Pakistani Interior Minister, who was already angry about the treatment of his compatriots by European states in the middle of the migrant crisis. In early November, Khan suspended the agreement on readmitting illegal detainees, saying that EU has been sending Pakistanis home on "baseless terrorism charges."

He said, "Those who give lectures on fundamental rights to us should also respect fundamental rights of Pakistanis."

On the other hand, Yannis Mouzalas, Greece's Migration Minister, told reporters that EU must be able to persuade Pakistan to accept returnees, as Greece is already under pressure to directly deport migrants arriving from Turkey.

Mouzalas stated that a few weeks ago, they tried to send 62 illegal migrants back to Pakistan, and these were also rejected. The rift with Pakistan is not the only issue they are currently dealing with, either, as Greece is already in trouble with the clashes erupting on the Greek-Macedonian border, when Macedonian police fired tear gas to mostly Pakistani migrants who were trying to get through the new border fence.