ISLAMABAD: The country’s first-ever Migrant Resource Centre (MRC) is functional now to ensure the welfare and protection of the migrant workers through providing them accurate and timely information on safe and legal migration. Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development have established the centre with the support of International Labour Organisation (ILO) and International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). Around nine million Pakistanis have proceeded abroad for employment mostly go to GCC countries since the year 1971 till the date. An official of the ministry said that the majority of workers are low skilled workers and lack of information on safe migration, access to support mechanisms and justice add to their vulnerabilities and thus they face exploitation and abuse during recruitment and employment process. The main purpose of the MRC is to provide accurate and timely information on safe and legal migration, referral and counseling as well as raising awareness on irregular migration and the related serious risks. The Migrant Resource Centre would increase the accessibility to general and specific information on migration, provide potential migrants with information and counseling on safe migration as well as raise awareness on irregular migration and the related serious risks. Pakistan has a long history of labour migration to the Middle East and is the second largest labour sending country after India in South Asia. During the period of 1971-2015, more than eight million Pakistanis have officially proceeded abroad for employment. Out of this total labour migration, about 96 percent have proceeded to the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states in which the key destination countries are Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Among all emigrants from Pakistan in the year 2015, 41 percent were skilled, 16 percent semi-skilled and 40 percent are un-skilled. The migrant workers bring substantial benefits like remittances in origin countries and human capital in destination countries but unfortunately the official channels for migration are failing to distribute the benefits equitably among the employers, intermediaries and workers.