ISLAMABAD – A large number of Pakistanis preferred moving out of the country due to multiple reasons including better employment opportunities during the last year, it has been revealed.
The Pakistan Economic Survey for the year 2023-2024 reveals that Saudi Arabia stood out as the top country preferred by Pakistanis for moving out. The kingdom hosted 426,951 Pakistanis who moved to the country mainly for jobs. In terms of the percentage, of all the Pakistanis who moved abroad, Saudi Arabia hosted 49.5 percent.
As far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, remittances from Saudi Arabia accounted for $5.1 billion, followed by the UK ($3.2 billion), and the US ($2.5 billion).
‘During 2023, the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BE&OE) and Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) have registered 862,625 workers for overseas employment. An overall increasing trend (4 percent) was observed in terms of emigrants registered in 2023(862,625) as compared to 2022(832,339),’ read the Pakistan Economic Survey recently released.
The United Arab Emirates was ranked number 2 in terms of the choice of Pakistanis and 2,30,000 Pakistanis relocated to the country. The emirate already hosts around 1.7 million Pakistanis who send remittances to the tune of millions of dollars every year.
The United Arab Emirates was also the second-largest source of remittances for the South-Asian country; Pakistanis in the UAE remitted $3.7 billion during the July-March 2024 fiscal year.
The official data released ahead of the national budget implies that Oman employed 60,046 Pakistani workers while Qatar offered jobs to 55,112 individuals during the year 2023-24. Meanwhile, Bahrain and Malaysia hosted 13,345 and 20,905 Pakistani workers, respectively.
As Pakistanis are largely based in GCC countries, their share of the remittances stood at $2.3 billion while those in the European Union contributed $2.6 billion. The trend implies that more and more Pakistanis prefer to move out to other countries, a situation which should be worrisome for the policymakers and political leaders alike.
