The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis in collaboration with International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Thursday arranged a day-long national conference on skills in demand in the GCC countries "Challenges and Opportunities for Pakistan". Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development was the chief guest on the occasion. The national seminar was attended by secretary Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis, Managing Director OPF, Country Director ILO and private overseas employment promoters.
In an inauguration session, Secretary Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Saif Ullah Chattha said that government in collaboration with the ILO was working on a EU-funded project to identify and resolve the issues related to labour migration to the GCC countries.
Under this project, he said a labour market information system would be developed which would provide vital information regarding low skilled and low paid workers demand in the GCC countries till 2025. He said a series of consultative sessions with stakeholders from both public and private sectors had been started.
The secretary said that on the index of world ranking of migrated workers, Pakistan stands at 9th position. A considerable number of Pakistani labour is working in the GCC countries. They are not limited to the GCC but also working in Latin America, European countries and other countries.
The secretary further said the government was giving much emphasis to migrated labour, therefore, it had deputed community welfare attachés in the GCC and other countries who would look after migrated workers. In his speech, Country Director ILO Francesco d' Ovidio said that the data compiled by ILO reveals that an estimated 0.6 million Pakistani workers are migrated to the GCC countries (Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE).
He said that recently, the ILO had started surveying the labour markets' conditions of countries of destination (CoD) and countries of origin (CoO). He said up-coming mega events in Dubai and Qatar and boom in construction sector in Saudi Arabia would increase the demand of labour in sectors such as manufacturing, transports, security guards, construction workers in future. "We are concentrating on what kind of training need for the capacity building of workers at home and the migrated policies of host countries," he added.
The ILO has a global mandate. It is not limited to Pakistan but also looking labour market of Nepal and India. The ILO is working to improve decent work and working conditions for workers as per the labour standards prescribed in conventions of the ILO, he added.
Minister for Overseas Pakistanis, Pir Syed Sadaruddin Shah Rashidi said Pakistan is an exporting country of skilled manpower to the GCC countries and asked the ILO and other donor agencies to work with Pakistan in improving the skill of workers in Pakistan. He said that Pakistan had developed a guideline and curriculum for the training of labour both in public and private sectors. He pointed out that Pakistan was much behind as far as skilled labour is concerned which needs to be explored.
Iftikhar Baber, Managing Director OPF said that the policies of the government for skilled migrated workers were covering three aspects. First, the foundation with the help of partner organisations has developed a curriculum which is redesigned as per demand of the labour market. Secondly, the government has established a market based information system which tells them the kind of workers overseas employers are looking for. Thirdly, bureau of immigration makes selection of suitable workers for a job.
Anna Engblom, Project Manager, ILO South Asia labour migration governance said that duration of her project was 36 months which would cover labour market of India, Nepal and Pakistan and workers' migration to the GCC countries. She said that the study would help promoting well managed labour migration from South Asia to ensure effective protection of the rights of vulnerable migrant workers and reduce irregular flow to the GCC countries.
Sabine Roth, ILO/ GIZ consultant in her presentation on the main findings of the study on occupations and skills in demand in Kuwait, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE, said that migrated workers in these countries were working in private sector as national population of these countries were working in public sector.
She further said that 2.9 million Pakistani migrated workers are working in the GCC countries. She said that immigration laws of these countries do not allow nationality for foreigners. However, she said that the Saudi government established some labour centers to minimise the role of visa sub-agents who are exploiting the situation.
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