West Asian countries have decided not to offer jobs to Pakistani nationals! Quite a few of the Gulf countries have issued warnings about the increasing number of Pakistani citizens on their soils. Even some of the Arab nations have sent letters to Islamabad, advising the South Asian country to teach etiquettes to its citizens! The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia have made it clear that they would not allow Pakistan to send workers to their countries.

Pakistan’s Geo TV reported in the first week of August 2024 that the Standing Committee (on Expatriate Pakistanis) of the Senate recently discussed the issue during a meeting. Dr Arshad Mahmood, the Secretary of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development of Pakistan, told the Committee that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE would not allow Pakistani nationals to work there.

The report has mentioned that Pakistani citizens who work in West Asian countries are solely responsible for this deprivation! Countries, like Saudi Arabia, have got frustrated with their activities. Dr Mahmood informed the Committee that around 0.6-0.8 million Pakistani citizens arrive in foreign countries every year to find jobs, and 0.2-0.3 million people return to Pakistan.

As per rules, the UAE accommodates 1.6 million Pakistanis, annually! Now, more than 1.8 million Pakistanis live in the UAE. The report has revealed that Pakistanis living in the UAE are responsible for nearly 50% of the crimes committed in that country. Some of the Pakistanis visit the West Asian countries for pilgrimage, but start begging there! While some of them return to Pakistan after earning money as beggars, others stay in those countries. It may be noted that Dr Mahmood had informed the same Committee in September 2023 that the majority of Pakistanis who left the country chose begging as profession! Later, the Government of Pakistan suspended the passports of at least 2,000 citizens who used to beg in West Asia and also blacklisted them for seven years.

Several Pakistani men have recently been detained in Dubai for making offensive videos of women! In Qatar, some Pakistani workers have refused to wear helmets while on duty. The administrations of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE get frustrated with these activities of Pakistani nationals. Riyadh has announced that Pakistani citizens would have to clear the tests conducted by the National Centre for Human Resources Development to work in Saudi Arabia.

In a 2015 report, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) mentioned that more than 90% of migrant workers from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka sought employment in West Asia. A couple of years ago, the UN agency claimed that more than 750,000 educated youth of Pakistan migrated abroad for employment in 2022 mainly because of the uncertain socio-economic-political situation in their country. The figure was 288,000 and 225,000 in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Express Tribune has reported that nearly 92,000 young people who left Pakistan in 2022 were doctors, engineers, Information Technology specialists and accountants. According to political analysts, the Pakistani Economy shall be in deep trouble in the coming days, if the West Asian nations stick to their decision. Islamabad receives a huge amount of foreign currency through Pakistani nationals who work in West Asia. This amount shall decrease further.

Every year, a huge number of Pakistani nationals migrate to oil-rich Middle Eastern countries, like Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, for employment, reducing the pressure on Pakistan’s local job market. If these countries refuse to accept Pakistani workers, then it will certainly have a negative impact on the Pakistani job market.

Interestingly, the scenario could boost the economies of neighbouring India and Bangladesh! According to experts, while the demand for Pakistani workers is constantly decreasing in West Asia, the demand for Indian and Bangladeshi workers is steadily increasing. The Indian workers are in high demand in different parts of the globe as they are quite disciplined.

Experts believe that the rising demand for Indian workers in West Asia may reduce India’s unemployment to some extent. At the same time, it shall increase India’s foreign currency reserves. Many Indians spend years abroad and earn in foreign currency. Most of them are migrant workers who live in foreign countries temporarily. However, they earn money in foreign countries as citizens of India. The money they send to their country is called Remittance.

As per UN statistics, India has been way ahead of other countries in terms of remittances received in the past few years. India topped the list in 2022 and 2023! In those two years, New Delhi received the maximum amount of remittance in the world! The South Asian nation was followed by Mexico, China and the Philippines. Pakistan and Bangladesh were far behind in this list. The World Bank (WB) has confirmed that India received remittances worth USD 120 billion in 2023!

The WB has claimed that the demand for Indian workers is quite high not only in West Asia, but also in Europe and the US. However, the demand for Indian migrant workers is high in the Arab countries, such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. Indian workers, too, are more interested in working in those countries as the Arab countries are the biggest sources of remittances in the world.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das