Remittance from Saat Samundar Paar… sacrifices they’ve made helps improve the quality of lives and economy of our country but it’s time to think about their wellbeing.
With a population of over 200 million people, Pakistan is the world’s fifth most populous country in the world and with a growth rate of two percent it will, without any doubt, retain its position if not take Indonesia’s place in coming future. Unlike other countries, Pakistan is considered as one of the youngest countries in the world with a youth population counts for 63 percent of the overall population (United Nations Population Fund Report (2016-17)). Unfortunately, bulging youth population has its own challenges from access to quality of education and dire need of employment opportunities especially in developing countries like in Pakistan, where only 12 percent of youth graduate beyond grade 12. Which implies that of the working age population many remains uneducated and subsequently, unemployed too. To exacerbate the said problem the acquisition of skills which is best countervail for educational deficits and ensure productive employment is also very low in Pakistan.
Those who have adequate skills don’t have enough employment opportunities in their homeland and thus with heavy heart most of them, who mainly belongs to middle class and lower class, decide to find employment in countries where economies are still thriving. In foreign lands they work hard to earn bread for their families back home, to educate their children so that they will survive in a country with unemployment rate of around 4.65 percent, to bear the medical bills of their parents, to get their daughters married… and the government, which has very little contribution in all of this, indirectly enjoys perks in form of inflow of foreign currency in short worker’s remittance.
According to the External Relations Department of State Bank, the remittance received during May 2021 accounted to 2.5 billion USD, which is 33.5 percent higher than same month of last year and certainly highest recorded inflow of remittance was witnessed in FY21 and inflows are still on the rise. If investigate this at more granular level we will find that the largest portion of our remittance comes from Saudi Arabia and UAE, which accounted for 30 percent and 19 percent of total remittance Pakistan received in FY 21, respectively. This is foreseeable considering around 2.3 million Pakistani workers are living in Saudi Arabia alone. Majority of these worker are skilled labors and with few working in higher management positions. Despite living in our friend countries, these Pakistani make their living in difficult situations and sometimes inhuman too.
Labor laws are stronger in those countries as compared to us but, despite strict regulations we all know how our labors are being treated in those friend countries. Every now and then we hear about the stories of injustices done by owners of big companies of foreign land. From illegal seizing of travelling documents to not giving workers their rightful salary on time. These poor people get loans or sell their lands to just pay the expenses of travelling and with heavy responsibility on their shoulders, most of them get abused at the hands of big companies by either compensating them less than what they actually deserve or by making them live in subminimal conditions and sometimes both. You also might have heard of incidents when workers upon their retirement or end of years long contracts, were deprived from their legal dues. In a few cases, companies don’t even pay employee provident fund and any other salary cuts, which companies is bound to pay back at the end of termination of employee or retirement.
Unfortunately, those who want to seek justice have a mountain to climb. Their nuisance of justice system of foreign land and large expenses associated with it, force most of them to return back home empty handed. In most of unfortunate events, some workers even experience accidents and few even lose their lives. Lengthy immigration procedures and absence of proper support of Pakistani mission boards mostly results in unbearable waiting for the family of decease.
Considering how crucial their contributions are in the development and sustainability our country’s economy, the government should take all necessary steps to improve the engagement between Pakistani mission and workers in term of financial and legal support when required. Government should also develop efficient channels to coordinate with host countries to solve problems which ordinary worker faces during their stay. Lastly, timely update on new immigration policies by governments of our friend countries is also important to avoid unnecessary deportation of workers.
