KARACHI, July 18: Speakers at a seminar here on Thursday said problems being faced by migrant workers be solved on a priority basis in order to enable them to play their role in nation building.

At the one-day stakeholders’ seminar on “Migrant Issues and Concerns,” they said overseas workers were earning in foreign currency that they sent back home which was used to strengthen the national economy.

The Federal Minister of Labour and Overseas Pakistanis, Owais A. Ghani, said efforts should be made to have coordination between the labour-exporting countries so that they could formulate a joint policy which, in turn, would help prevent exploitation of their workers in labour-importing countries.

He also suggested that efforts be made to provide training to skilled workers which would enable them to earn more and get better working conditions abroad. He said an overwhelming majority of Pakistanis working in foreign countries were unskilled, so they were not paid what they really deserved.

Referring to information provided by an earlier speaker that more than 70 per cent of AIDS patients were either overseas workers, their husbands/wives or children, he suggested that workers intending to go abroad be provided complete health information to enable them to be on guard against diseases like AIDS and HIV. He said he would try to persuade the ministry of foreign affairs to organize seminars and workshops in foreign countries for Pakistanis working abroad.

He said state-run vocational training institutes had failed miserably as a majority of the teaching staff had been appointed on a political basis by past governments, so now efforts were being made to rectify the situation.

The minister said the private sector was playing a major role in the formal education sector, but it had not come forward to establish vocational training institutes. It was providing vocational training which was expensive, but the majority of people who needed vocational training were those who could not afford the fees charged by these institutions. So the government was considering providing subsidy to private-sector training institutes so that they could accommodate the poor.

He said keeping in view the heavy demand for nurses in the United States, Middle East, Malaysia, etc some nurses were being trained who, after completing their training, would be sent overseas.

Thirty-five nurses were being provided training at a private institute in Lahore and 15 nurses at a private institute in Rawalpindi.

Earlier, other speakers said due to social and cultural traditions women comprised around one per cent of the total overseas workers. Besides women could go abroad to work as maidservant if she was under 35 years of age and her family’s consent was also required. There was, however, no such restrictions for wo men doctors, nurses, teachers, etc.

They said so far more than 1,860 cases of AIDS had been reported in the country, but the actual figure could be as high as 50,000-80,000, and more than 70 per cent of the patients were overseas workers, their wives/husbands or their children.

They said at present Pakistan is among countries where the prevalence of AIDS is low, but it is in an area considered vulnerable, so it has become necessary to launch awareness campaign against AIDS. They added that the disease is caused due to ignorance, so it is necessary to create general awareness of it.

The speakers said Pakistan is a country which sends workers abroad and where people from foreign countries also work. It has migrant workers, most of them staying illegally, from Bangladesh, Mayanmar, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, etc, and its workers go to the Middle East, Europe, United States, etc. Both groups of workers face different sets of problems, they added.

They said it often happened that agreements that employers entered into with workers were not followed when workers reached in alien lands, and Pakistan missions there usually were also not helpful to workers.

They also criticized the role of federal investigation agencies, saying they raided offices of travel agents and harassed the staff in case travel documents of overseas workers were found to be fake, etc. They added that in the whole world it was the job of the immigration staff, not of travel agents, to check the documents of passengers.

Fateha was offered for former minister of labour Omar Asghar Khan. The seminar was organized jointly by the All-Pakistan Trade Union Congress, National Institute of Labour Administration Training, Pakistan AIDS Prevention Society and Sindh AIDS Control Programme.

Hakim Ali Shah Bokhari, Ahsanullah Khan, Dr Khalida Ghaus, Ghazala Saleem, Pasha A. Gul, Shaukat Ali, Mushtaq Ahmed, Sharafuddin Memon, Khawer Jameel, Dr Sharaf Ali Shah, Dr S. A. Mujeeb, Zulekha Zar, Mohammed Islam, M. Hanif Rinch, M. Usman Ali, M. M. Bhatia and others also spoke.