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| 25 April 2005 | Monday | 15 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426 |
Transparency in overseas jobs stressed
KARACHI, April 24: To save the workforce intending to work abroad from fraud recruiters, an adequate pre-departure training is a must. This would not only help solving problems of the labour force but also save the government from a lot of troubles. These views were expressed at the “National conference on sharing the findings of action research to review pre-departure programme in Pakistan”, organized by the Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA), held at a local hotel on Saturday.
LHRLA President Zia Awan in his welcome address said that the role of middleman should be ended in the overseas recruitment for good and government should display political will to form a stern policy.
He said that a proper training and guidance of labour was a must so that they could be saved from the cheating of agents and recruiters.
Mr Awan said that in 1982 a policy for pre-departure programme was formed but it could not be properly developed and implemented.
He said that the government, NGOs, civil society and recruiters should join hands to form proper policy to guide and train the labour force.
Mr Awan urged the Pakistan embassies in other countries to address the situation on priority basis.
The LHRLA chief also presented a research report on Pakistani workers in Malaysia and said that it was found that many workers got cheated by agents due to ignorance of laws.
He said that a pre-departure training could prove helpful and such complaints could be lessened.
Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) Chairman Mushtaq Ahmad in his presentation of “Welfare of overseas Pakistanis, their reintegration and rehabilitation in the country” said that manpower export sector had been deregulated till 1979,when the OPF was formed and laws and rules were formed for exporting manpower.
He said that after 1979 licenses were given to genuine recruiters and export of manpower was made more organized.
The OPF chairman said that the overseas Pakistani workers had greatly contributed in the economic betterment of the country.
He said that reports of entities like the State Bank of Pakistan clearly showed what an important role the remittances of overseas Pakistanis had played in stabilizing the balance of payment situation.
Mr Ahmed said that it was on record that licensed recruiters were seldom involved in scams of visa frauds and other irregularities.
He said that illegal export of manpower was perhaps the most lucrative business of our times.
Mr Ahmed said that not only countries like Pakistan, but the UK and USA also were facing the issue of human smuggling.
He said that the OPF had formed a systematic mechanism to register the grievances of the Pakistani workers abroad regarding problems faced by their families back home and teams of officers were busy to get them solved.
Mr Ahmed informed that roughly 70 per cent of their problems were successfully solved by the OPF.
He said that the OPF was running 22 schools in district headquarters for the sons and daughters of the overseas Pakistanis, besides college for girls and school in Islamabad.
Mr Ahmed said that the OPF had got seats reserved for sons and daughters of overseas Pakistanis in medical and engineering colleges and varsities, and recently the Sindh government had approved 10 seats in medical colleges in this regard.
He said that housing problems of overseas workers were being solved and five per cent of plots in all government schemes were reserved for overseas Pakistanis, besides the OPF had raised its own housing schemes in which up to 9,000 plots had been allotted to the overseas Pakistani.
The OPF chief said that now a scheme was introduced to give pension to the contributing overseas Pakistanis after their attaining of age of 60 years.
He said that golden and silver cards were being given to overseas Pakistanis, who send 10,000 and 2,500 dollars per year to Pakistan through banks.
LHRLA Consultant M.M.Bhatia, Ex-Director of Bureau of Immigrants and Overseas Employees, said that during the last five years 770,947 peoples had been sent abroad by some 2,000 overseas employer promoters.
He said that action should be taken against the fake recruiting agents, while the efficient and law-abiding recruiting agents should be encouraged.
Habibur Rehman of Pakistan Law and Justice Commission said in his speech that law making was necessary to safeguard the rights and interests of the immigrants and overseas Pakistanis.
He assured the workshop participants that suggestions would be incorporated in the recommendations of the commission.
Hanif Rinch, Centeral Chairman Overseas Employers Promoters Association (OEPA) in his address said that besides the pre-departure training workers should also be given some training in the language of the receiving country.
He said that the OFP had billions of rupees in the head of welfare of overseas workers and some portion of amount should be utilized for their proper training and guidance.
Later, a documentary about verseas labour force problems in Malaysia was shown.—PPI
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