Half a million left in 2019 to work abroad

LABOURERS STILL TOPPED THE LIST OF WORKERS WHO WENT ABROAD

Pakistan’s manpower export has recorded a huge surge in the year 2019 as more than half a million people left the country to work abroad — most of them came to the Middle East. A total of 563,018 Pakistani workers have gone abroad for employment in 2019 as compared to 382,439 in 2018, registering a massive increase of 180,579 people.

Labourers still topped the list of workers who went abroad with a total number of 214,000 (almost 38 per cent) in 2019. A whopping number of 130,000 Pakistanis (almost 28 per cent) have also gone abroad to work as drivers this year — most of them came to the Gulf countries. Those who went abroad included: 1.56 per cent highly skilled workers and 2.53 per cent highly qualified workers.

United Arab Emirates continues to be the favourite place to work for Pakistanis as more than 185,000 Pakistani workers came to the UAE on employment visas during the first 11 months of 2019.

Though the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (MOPHRD) is taking the credit of sending so many people abroad, other sources indicated that financial crunch and unemployment in Pakistan are some of the main reasons for such a large number of workers going abroad to earn living.

According to the statistics shared by MOPHRD, as many as 11 million people have left Pakistan to work abroad during the last five years since 2015. During this time, a maximum of 946,571 people left Pakistan to work abroad in 2015 while a minimum of 382,439 workers got foreign work visas in 2018.

“UAE continues to generate a lot of job opportunities for overseas workers and it remains a vibrant source of employment for Pakistanis due to its dynamic economy and rapid development,” an official at the ministry told Gulf News.