July 18, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 21, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, July 17: Ten Asian countries have gathered here in a four-day consultation to devise ways and means to ensure immigration of labourers to developed countries through legal channels and discourage brain drain.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has organised the workshop in which labour migration officials from 10 Asian countries are being trained in administering overseas employment programmes and to share experiences and best practices on labourer migration policies.

The programme is focusing on the role of marketing and labour migration opportunities in European Union (EU) member states. Delegations from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam are participating in the event.

Speaking at the inaugural session, Minister of State for Overseas Pakistanis Mohammad Raza Hayat Harraj said it was a fact that for global economy, migration was a factor of production and an agent for development. The present globalization of trade and capital could not be separated from the movement of people across the borders in search of better future. The information revolution was further spurring migration, he added.

Mr Harraj said the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment of Pakistan had been established as a centralised agency to regulate overseas employment. The bureau administered Emigration Ordinance 1979 and implemented the rules. There were seven protectorates of emigrants located at Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan and Malakand, which processed the demands received from overseas employment promoters according to the laid down procedures.

He said the ministry had posted 18 community welfare attaches (CWAs) in countries with large concentration of Pakistani workers. The CWAs promoted overseas employment from Pakistan to the countries of their accreditation, resolved problems faced by Pakistani workers including non-implementation of service agreement and illegal termination of their services. They also looked after the welfare of Pakistani community in general and dealt with death compensation cases of deceased workers. They also motivate overseas Pakistanis to send their remittances through banking channels.

The minister said since its inception in 1976, the Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) had sent 127,536 Pakistanis abroad for employment. It had established a data bank hosting more than 196,000 CVs with a view to quickly responding to foreign manpower demand. The corporation had established a website which hosted 51,000 resumes of professionals, skilled, semi-skilled and un- skilled workers.

He said demographers estimated that some 200 million people or roughly three per cent of the world population were migrants. Export of manpower played a central role in the Pakistani economy. The foreign exchange earnings for the year 2002-03 were $4.28 billion, which not only helped improve economic situation in the country, but also opened huge opportunities for the employment of unskilled and skilled workers abroad. During 2005, some 145,000 people proceeded abroad for employment through Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment.

Mr Hiraj said Pakistan received $4.136 billion as workers remittances during the first 11 months of the current fiscal year (July 2005-May 2006) as against $3.809 billion received in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, registering an increase of $326.44 million or 8.57 per cent. Of the total amount, $11.10 million was received through encashment and profit earned Forging Exchange Bearer Certificates (FEBCs) and Foreign Currency Bearer Certificates (FCBCs).

The workshop is being organized by IOM as part of a regional programme on facilitating labourer migration between Asia and the European Union. The objective of the programme is to facilitate legal labourers migration, and to enhance the capacity of governments and the private sector to place workers legally in the EU, to develop regional cooperation between labour sending countries and the countries of destination and to warn about the risks of illegal labour migration.

“Undoubtedly, IOM’s objective is to promote legal labour migration,” said Hassan Abdul Moneim Mostafa, IOM regional representative for west and central Asia.