2.5pc Pakistanis live abroad, mostly in Gulf

An estimated four million Pakistani migrant workers live around the world, which corresponds to around 2.5 per cent of total population of the country, legislators here have been told.

Of the four million, an estimated 94 per cent population of Pakistani migrant workers is concentrated in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman while 80 per cent workers work in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

These figures were released at a briefing session here Saturday organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency for the members of the North West Frontier Province assembly.

Dr Zafar Nasir, the chief of research at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics of the Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, said economic and social problems, political and security reasons, and better standard of life were some of the reasons forcing people to migrate to other countries.

He said some 191 million people in the world live outside their country of origin, which is three per cent of world population of six billion. He said this will increase to 230 million by the year 2050. Migrants living in different regions of world are 46 million in Europe, 53 million in Asia and 45 million in the United States.

Dr Nasir said Pakistani overseas workers are over four million and about 287,000 workers left Pakistan for abroad in 2007 alone.

He said among the skilled Pakistani workers, drivers are in the highest in number followed by masons, carpenters and tailors. Only 26,604 are engineers and 7,930 doctors who have left Pakistan for foreign shores.

Dr Nasir said an estimated 52 per cent migrant workers from Pakistan are from Punjab, 25 per cent from North West Frontier Province, 9.4 per cent from Sindh, 6.5 from the Balochistan province, 5.4 from the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and one per cent from Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The NWFP districts with the largest number of migrants are Dir, Swat, Swabi, Mardan and Kohat.

Dr Nasir said public and private sectors are both involved in the promotion of overseas migration, however the private sector is now dominant. He said cost of migration is increasing and Malaysia and South Korea are major markets for Pakistani migrants.

Dr Sabur Ghayyur, the chairman of the policy planning cell of the Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, said the government’s role is increasing in the promotion of “safe migration”.

“Non-payment of salaries by foreign employers, poor working conditions, accommodation, increasing migration fees, split families and illiteracy are some of the problems of migrant workers who are being deported by some foreign governments without giving them a chance to explain their position,” he said.