The country’s first-ever Migrant Resource Centre (MRC), after running a successful pilot project in the federal capital, will expand its offices in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh under a four-year project.
The centre was established by Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Ministry with the support of International Labour Organisation (ILO) and International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) in October 2015.
The centre was established mainly to ensure the welfare and protection of the migrant workers through providing them accurate and timely information on safe and legal migration.
Talking to APP, MRC Coordinator Shahid Naveed said the centre had arranged a number of activities, including conferences and training activities, for the intending migrants and also conducted successful media campaigns about safe and legal migration.
He said that the MRC would establish 10 offices in Punjab, two in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Sindh, keeping in view the requirements.
Naveed informed that over nine million Pakistanis had proceeded abroad for employment since the year 1971 till to date and most of them proceeded to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
The majority of workers were low skilled workers and lack of information on safe migration, access to support mechanisms and justice added to their vulnerabilities and thus they faced exploitation and abuse during recruitment and employment process.
He said that the main purpose of the MRC was to provide accurate and timely information on safe and legal migration, referral and counselling, as well as raising awareness of irregular migration and the related serious risks.
Pakistan had a long history of labour migration to the Middle East and was the second largest labour sending country (after India) in South Asia, he added.
During the period of 1971-2015, more than eight million Pakistanis had officially proceeded abroad for employment.
Out of this total labour migration, about 96 per cent had proceeded to the six GCC member states – the key destination countries are Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Among all emigrants from Pakistan in the year 2015, 41 per cent were skilled, 16 per cent semi-skilled and 40 per cent un-skilled.
Migrant workers bring substantial benefits like remittances in origin countries and human capital in destination countries but unfortunately, the official channels for migration have failed to distribute the benefits equitably among employers, intermediaries and workers, he elaborated.