172,000 Citizens Left Pakistan For Better Jobs in Q1 2025

More than 172,000 Pakistanis have left the country to earn their livelihood in different countries, mainly in the Gulf states. According to the statistics updated by the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BEOE), as many as 172,144 Pakistani emigrant workers moved to more than 50 different countries from January to March 2025, which stood at an average number of 57,381 Pakistani workers leaving the country every month. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) took the lead with over 121,940, constituting 70% of the overall manpower exports. It was followed by other GCC countries, including Qatar with 12,998, Bahrain with 9,139, and Oman with 8,331. The workers’ emigration to the UAE declined significantly, to 6,891. The frequent revisions in the visa process and emigration policies in this country, causing to slowing in manpower exports to different states of the UAE, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and other states. Ibrahim Amin, a consultant to the banking sector for overseas Pakistanis, said the concerned authorities should establish a forum with overseas employment promoters, diplomatic missions, and overseas organizations in different countries to spell out the latest employment and visa policies of different countries to the aspirant workers, mainly in the UAE and KSA. He suggested that authorities should also develop a mechanism to screen the migration of workers to stop their entry to these states, including professional beggars, scammers, and people with criminal records. The government, along with authorities,s should work to facilitate expatriate Pakistanis in GCC countries to enhance the inflows of remittances through banking channels, Ibrahim Amin. Remittance inflows could be increased to over $1 billion from the UAE and the KSA each through facilitating expatriates opening bank accounts in Pakistani banks located in these countries, he added. He mentioned that over 4.4 million non-resident Pakistanis are living in these two countries, but a majority of the blue-collar workers do not own bank accounts, resulting them having to rely heavily on a non-banking channel of Hawala and Hundi to send money to their families living in Pakistan. Multiple Pakistani banks are operating in these two countries, but the non-regulatory condition for depositing a huge amount of up to 5,000 Dirhams and Riyals is a major impediment to owning a bank account. Our commercial banks, under the supervision of the banking regulator, should enhance the facilitation level to non-resident Pakistanis in GCC countries to attract inflows of remittances from non-banking to formal channels, he added. According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Pakistan received handsome remittances from the two major destinations—the KSA and the UAE, with average values standing above $700 million and $600 million every month out of a total $3 billion.