Hajra Naz
As per the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BEOE), from January to March 2025, over 172,000 Pakistanis migrated abroad for work, mainly to the Gulf states. This indicates that approximately 57,381 Pakistani workers emigrated every month during this period.
Leading the pack was Saudi Arabia, which alone received over 121,940 workers, accounting for 70% of the total exports. Other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) followed, with;
- Qatar receives 12,998
- Bahrain 9,139
- Oman 8,331.
However, the UAE recorded a significant drop in the migration of workers, which came to only 6,891 Pakistanis migrating to the Emirates. This decline was the result of enduring shifts in visa and emigration policy.
Ibrahim Amin, a consultant for the banking sector focused on overseas Pakistanis, emphasized the need for a platform that brings together:
- Overseas employment promoters
- Diplomatic missions
- Foreign organizations.
This forum could help keep potential workers informed about the latest visa and employment policies, especially in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Amin additionally proposed establishing procedures to pre-screen workers migrating to these nations in a bid to stop the influx of professional beggars, conmen, and ex-convicts. Moreover, he proposed that the authorities facilitate the process for expatriates in the GCC to remit money through official banking systems, which could increase remittances from the UAE and Saudi Arabia to over $1 billion annually.
A good number of Pakistani workers in the KSA and UAE, and the blue-collar workers in particular, do not have bank accounts and use informal banking systems, such as Hawala and Hundi, to transfer money.
Amin noted that many Pakistani banks are located in these countries, but the barriers to large deposits need to be capped, like with the 5,000 Dirham or Riyal limit on opening accounts. He called upon Pakistani banks to ease restrictions on expatriate services in the GCC to enable remittance transfers through formal channels.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), significant remittances are coming from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, estimated at over 700 million and 600 million, respectively, each month, which aggregate to $3 billion monthly remittances.
