78,361 workers returned to Pakistan till December 2020: NA told

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Secretary for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sahibzada Sibghatullah on Wednesday told the National Assembly that around 78,361 workers returned from the various countries due to challenging situation there after COVID-19.

Replying during the question hour in the House, he said the returned workers were registered on Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) portal since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Sibghatullah said that 35,281 returned from Saudi Arabia, 5,740 from United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 2,655 from Oman.

He said the outbreak of corona virus pandemic affected the economies globally including the labour migration like layoffs, job losses especially in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

Sibghatullah said Pakistan was a major beneficiary of labour migration and Pakistani workers also returned home due to this pandemic.

He said no separate data for returning workers was maintained. However, Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) has launched a Portal in last June for registration of returning workers.

To a question, he said after the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the enactment of labour legislation and enforcement was the Provincial subject, however, international treaties, conventions and agreements and international arbitrations rests with the federal government.

He said under the Rules of Business, 1973, the ministry has been assigned the functions for keeping a watch on labour legislations from international perspective, coordination of labour legislations in the country, dealing and agreements with international organizations in the fields of labour and social security.

However, he said since the devolution of labour legislation and enforcement to provinces, the federal government has developed different frameworks, conducted gap analysis of ILO Conventions viz a viz labour laws and initiated Decent Work Country Programme in collaboration with ILO Country Office.

It applied for initiation of Better Work Programme in Pakistan, enhanced institutional capacity to prepare periodical reports on ILO Conventions, established a Federal Tripartite Consultation Committee for debate and consensus based decision making on labour issues. Most recently, it has processed the case for constitution of Inter-Ministerial Labour Committee of Pakistan.

Sibghatullah said the aim of all these activities was to bring awareness amongst the provinces about the international commitments of the country and to align Labour Laws at par with international obligations.