UAE and Saudi Arabia Reject Pakistani Laborers Amid Concerns Over Beggars and Criminals
Gulf Nations Demand Better Conduct and Skills from Pakistani Migrants
Gulf Nations Demand Behavioral Reforms from Pakistani Workers Amid Rising Concerns
New Delhi: Pakistan has recently been warned by several Gulf countries about the increasing number of its expatriates. As a result, Pakistan is now being urged to provide its citizens with lessons in ‘proper behavior’. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have specifically requested that the Pakistani government refrain from sending workers to these countries.
This information was revealed during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis. Dr. Arshad, the Secretary of Overseas Pakistanis, informed the committee that several Gulf nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, have expressed significant concerns regarding various issues associated with overseas Pakistanis, according to GeoTV.
Dr. Arshad detailed that between 600,000 and 800,000 Pakistanis leave the country annually, but only between 200,000 and 300,000 return. The UAE, which has a yearly quota of 1.6 million Pakistani workers, has seen this number exceed 1.8 million. Notably, Pakistanis are implicated in nearly 50 percent of the crimes occurring in the UAE.
The Gulf nations have raised several concerns, including reports of Pakistanis traveling under the guise of pilgrimage and engaging in begging. Additionally, there have been recent incidents involving Pakistani men making inappropriate videos in front of women in Dubai, Pakistani nurses refusing to work in Kuwait, and laborers refusing to wear helmets in Qatar.
This situation follows a previous report from September 2023, where Dr. Arshad disclosed that among the Pakistanis leaving the country, beggars constituted a significant portion. In response, the Pakistani government decided to suspend the passports of 2,000 beggars and blacklist them for seven years, acknowledging that this issue damages the country’s reputation.
Saudi Arabia has recently declared that it will only allow workers from Pakistan to be employed if they pass a test administered by the National Centre for Human Resources Development.
Migration to the Gulf:
A 2015 report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) highlights that more than 90 percent of migrant workers from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka find employment in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. Pakistan was also the second-largest exporter of labor migrants to these nations.
In 2022, more than 750,000 educated young Pakistanis sought employment abroad due to the country’s unstable economic and political conditions and limited job opportunities. This number represents a significant increase compared to previous years, with departures nearly tripling from 225,000 in 2021 and 288,000 in 2020. Among these emigrants were 92,000 highly educated professionals, including doctors, engineers, IT specialists, and accountants, as reported by Express Tribune. The Bureau of Emigration noted that most of these individuals moved to Middle Eastern countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
A 2022 research article by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) found that over the past 40 years, approximately eight million Pakistani workers have emigrated through formal channels, predominantly to the Middle East. While Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been major destinations, workers have also migrated to other oil-rich nations such as Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar. Movement to countries outside the Middle East remains rare, indicating that Pakistan has not expanded its labor markets significantly.
Each year, the migration of workers to the Gulf countries helps alleviate pressure on Pakistan’s domestic job market. This emigration represents about one-third of new job seekers in Pakistan and more than 10 percent of the country’s unemployed labor force.
To address these pressing challenges, officials have stated that the ministry is currently gathering data on job availability and emerging professions in various countries. Additionally, a cabinet committee has been established under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to tackle immigration-related issues and work towards finding solutions.
