ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is devising a new strategy to increase labor exports to Middle Eastern countries, an official said this week, noting that the number of Pakistani workers leaving for other countries declined by 10,000 in March due to flight disruptions and regional tensions caused by the Iran war.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman are preferred destinations for millions of Pakistani laborers. Every year, thousands of Pakistani skilled and unskilled workers leave the country for these Gulf nations to seek employment and repatriate income to their families back home.
The US and Israel’s move to bomb Iran on Feb. 28 and Tehran’s subsequent strikes against US interests in the Gulf states and Israel have plunged the entire region into turmoil. Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, secretary of Pakistan’s Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, said the war has not yet triggered a mass exodus of Pakistani workers from the region.
Speaking to Arab News on Thursday, Chaudhry said the ministry has facilitates the departure of around 60,000 workers monthly, adding that the figure dropped to 50,000 in March. The official attributed this decline to not only regional tensions but also logistical hurdles, triggered by the limited availability of flights due to the war.
