ISLAMABAD (ILO NEWS): Pakistanis can legally pursue overseas employment through two modalities, either through a public or private overseas employment promoter or through “direct” employment, by which an individual makes an employment arrangement on their own or through a friend or relative working abroad. These migrant workers play a critical role in the development of the origin as well as destination countries. Unfortunately, they also face various kind of abuses and exploitation during the recruitment process and placement. At the global level various studies have been done to understand the causes and implications of these abuses and how to improve the situation. However, specific information concerning the situation in Pakistan as concerns the root causes of exploitation of migrant workers and available systems of support for migrants in need has been lacking.
Addressing this information gap, the International Labour Organization, under its EU funded South Asia labour Migration Governance project last week launched a series of four studies on various aspects of labour migration from Pakistan to GCC countries:
Law and practice: the recruitment of low-skilled Pakistani workers for overseas employment: Studies the prevailing recruitment practices in Pakistan with a focus on low-skilled migrant workers. It describes the current legal and policy frameworks, looks at actual practices and provides recommendations on how to make enforcement of recruitment regulations more efficient and equitable.
Where to go for help: Pakistani migrant workers’ access to justice at home and in GCC countries: Examines the legal framework and complaints mechanisms available for Pakistani migrant workers at home and in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It identified bottlenecks in the grievance-handling process and potential ways to improve it to provide a speedy, accessible, less costly and just remedy to migrant workers.
Labour migration from Pakistan: 2015 status report: Captures the latest trends in labour migration from Pakistan by bringing together all available statistics from a range of Government departments/units until 2015. It also highlights the achievements of the Government till date, remaining challenges and suggests ways forward.
The launch, which took the shape of two panel discussions presenting and discussing the key findings of the studies was attend by some 45 participants from government, INGOs, NGOs, UN, media, Embassies, researchers and recruitment agencies .
Speaking at the event, Mr Manzoor Ahmad Kiyani, Joint Secretary (Emig/OP), Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (MoOPHRD), appreciated the studies and noted that they will help the ministry to strengthen its policies and services to migrant workers. He noted that the ministry is working on improving the governance mechanism through a number of initiatives including development of an e-migration system to bring transparency to the process as well as developing a return and reintegration strategy.
Ms Anne Marchal, Minister Counsellor/Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to Pakistan said that “these comprehensive studies that are presented today give an important overview of the baseline data on labour migration and protection of migrant workers in Pakistan and I am confident that these studies are important step towards the development of a coherent, effective and protective labour migration policy for the benefits of all, the migrants, Pakistan’s economy and the countries where the migrants will work”.
In his speech Mr U. R. Usmani, representative of the Employers’ Federation of Pakistan emphasised the importance of labour migration in the context of the national economy and employment market. He lamented that “enough has not been done by the government to protect the migrant workers from exploitation against unethical recruitment, un-equitable compensations and social protection”. He said that these researches will help to map the way forward to provide justice, fair treatment and human rights to migrant workers.
Dr Saboor Ghayur, Senior Advisor, Pakistan Workers Federation said that lack of employment opportunities in the country is a main factor behind high emigration especially among youth who are desperate to get jobs often ignore terms and conditions of work before making decision and departing from the country. He said “Effective, efficient and transparent labour migration governance within the country has the potential to tackle many of the issues emanating out of the migration process. We in the Pakistan Workers’ Federation see the current focus on labour migration governance as an important initiative that need support and also to be sustained”.
ILO speakers, Mr Saad Gilani, Senior Programme Officer, and Ms Anna Engblom, Chief Technical Adviser, explained that this event marked the closing of the South Asia Labour Migration Governance project. Over the apt three years, the project has worked to improve protection for the about 8 million Pakistanis who are currently working abroad by enhancing support systems for migrant workers capacity building, knowledge and information sharing and legal reform.
