According to a report by Pakistan's leading English daily The Dawn, the senate committee was also informed that the situation has led to the shifting of preferences by Gulf employers to hire workforce from other regional countries, such as Bangladesh, instead of Pakistan.

As per reports the United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities have recently expressed concern over inappropriate behaviour of some Pakistani expatriates in their country, which includes making videos of women in Dubai without their consent.

The Senate Standing Committee meeting, which was chaired by Senator Zeeshan Khanzada, stressed that the Pakistani government was ignoring the potentials available in this sector.

After facing criticism from members of the senate committee regarding failure of the government to harness potentials of Pakistani diaspora, Arshad Mahmood, the secretary of Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource De­­velopment, presented a bleak picture of the situation of Pakistan labour force in Gulf nations, reports Dawn.

The secretary said that 50 percent of the crime rate among the UAE labour force is reportedly attributed to Pakistanis.

The senate committee was further informed that UAE authorities have recently expressed concern over inappropriate behaviour of some Pakistanis in their country.

The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis' secretary said there was a declining trend in overseas employment for the Pakistani labour force as despite modernisation and advancement in technology a significant portion of the Pakistani labour force remains unskilled.

The senate committee was also informed that lack of resources and skill development of the Pakistani labour force has resulted in replacement of Pakistani workers from other countries.

The secretary of the ministry informed the senate committee that besides UAE, other Gulf nations, including Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, had expressed concerns about various issues related to overseas Pakistanis, Geo TV reports.

According to Pakistani media reports, the secretary told the senate committee that 0.6 million to 0.8 million Pakistanis leave the country every year, and only 2,00,000 to 3,00,000 return.

UAE has a yearly quota of 1.6 million Pakistanis which has now exceeded 1.8 million, as per reports.

The Gulf countries’ concerns include Pakistanis travelling under the guise of pilgrimage and begging in these countries, and more recently, Pakistani men have been making inappropriate videos in front of women in Dubai, while Pakistani nurses have refused to work in Kuwait and labourers have refused to wear safety helmets during work in Qatar, reports The Print.

According to reports, Kuwait recently raised an issue concerning Pakistani nurses, who are reportedly refusing to perform certain job-related duties and instead put the onus on ward boys for regular day-to-day activities.

Moreover, the Pakistani nurses do not try to learn the local language, but also want to go to Europe after only a six-month stay in the Gulf country, as per the officials of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis.

This development follows a previous report from September last year (2023), when the secretary informed the same senate committee that among all Pakistanis leaving the country, “beggars” were travelling abroad in the highest numbers.

Most of these people visit Saudi Arabia on Umrah visas, while Saudi authorities have reported that 90 percent of all beggars arrested in the country were Pakistanis, Dawn reported.

The Pakistani government then decided to suspend the passports of 2,000 ‘beggars’, and blacklisted them for seven years, adding that this practice brings disrepute to the country, as reported by The Print.

Saudi Arabia, one of the major destinations for Pakistani workers, has now stated that they will only permit labourers to be employed if they pass the test administered by the National Centre for Human Resources Development (NCHRD).

Senator Nasir Abbas, a member of the senate standing committee, highlighted the issue of Pakistanis living illegally in Iraq to earn a livelihood and questioned if the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource De­­velopment can help them as they are often subjected to poor treatment.

Meanwhile, Senator Zeeshan Khanzada said that a number of Pakistanis were living illegally in Italy, but they identify themselves as non-Pakistanis while the Pakistan embassy identifies them as Pakistani citizens.

The senator suggested that the ministry should play a proactive role and get a clear picture and also extend possible help to stranded Pakistanis, reported the Dawn.

According to a 2015 International Labour Organization (ILO) report, Pakistan was the second largest migrant exporter to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which brings together six Arab countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

Over 7,50,000 educated young Pakistanis opted to seek employment abroad in 2022 due to the country’s uncertain economic and political situation and shrinking job opportunities.

This is nearly three times the departures in 2021 (2,25,000) and 2020 (2,88,000), while this also included 92,000 highly educated individuals, such as doctors, engineers, IT experts, and accountants, Express Tribune reported, as per reports.

The Bureau of Emigration noted that the majority of these emigrants moved to Middle Eastern countries, primarily Saudi Arabia and the UAE, reports The Print.

A 2022 research article by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) also found that over the last 40 years, around eight million workers have moved abroad through formal channels, mostly to the Middle East, the report said.

UAE and Saudi Arabia have been the main destinations for the Pakistani labourers, but workers have also gone to other oil-rich countries like Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar.

Moving to places outside the Middle East is uncommon, showing that Pakistan has not found many new job markets for its workers, according to reports.

Each year, sending workers to the Gulf countries helps reduce the pressure on Pakistan’s local job market, and this outflow represents about one-third of new job seekers in Pakistan and more than 10 percent of the South Asian nation’s unemployed labour force.

Regarding the government’s efforts to tackle the pressing challenges, officials stated that the ministry is currently collecting data on job availability and emerging professions in different countries, reports The Print.

The Pakistani authorities also noted that a cabinet committee has been established under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to address immigration issues.