Daily Times

For the poor and less skilled the dream of going overseas has an irresistible attraction. With an economy that has failed to produce enough jobs for even the educated and skilled it is too much to ask to provide employment to those who are not educated and not ‘connected’. Thus the best option for the teeming jobless is somehow to reach foreign shores, get jobs on a higher salary than at home, and send money home for their families to survive the demands of a tough life. Overseas Pakistanis, especially those who are poor, queue up for jobs in the Middle East, and for those who finally get those jobs it becomes a breakthrough for their families to aspire for a better life. Saudi Arabia and Dubai have been the most sought after places for such people as these countries require cheap labour that can sustain their development objectives.

While the acquisition of jobs in a foreign land becomes a dream to be pursued the job itself is far from the shining office buildings we see in posters and videos. It is almost like there is a first world where you see the skyscrapers boasting of the biggest names in the dreamy horizon, and then there is a third world that is living in nightmarish reality of the labour class packed in inhuman living conditions. However, for those who go through this nightmare the prospect of earning a sum to feed and educate a family back home are enough to make it worth it. For Pakistan, overseas people have been a major source of earning foreign exchange to pay off its expenses. Almost six million overseas Pakistanis send money back home. The yearly $11bn that they send on average almost cover the entire payment for petroleum imports, and constitute almost six percent of the GDP of the country.

That is why what happens to these Pakistanis matters a great deal. However, that has not been the case as thousands of them have been laid off in Saudi Arabia with no money and nowhere to go. These workers go through ordeals to get a job, and then become subject to the whims and fancies of employers. The working terms and conditions provided by employers violate many legal and human conventions, but there is nobody to either make them aware of their rights or to make them fight for their due share. The employment terms are almost slavery in their harshness. The poor and the ignorant reach these countries and hand over their passports to their companies. The employer also has the right to provide the working permit known as iqama, and thus even if they are not paid and kept like animals, workers dare not leave their jobs as their legal documents are in the hands of their employers. They thus become slaves of the employers accepting low pay, zero privileges and no rights.

Many workers do not have an iqama as their employers refuse to pay SR2,400 to renew it. This makes them illegal residents, and thus thousands of Pakistanis are also in jails stranded by an inability of the Pakistani embassy to provide legal aid and negotiation with the government. The laws in Saudi Arabia have become tighter. Gone are the days when manpower import was a priority in Saudi Arabia, and Pakistani labour could enjoy preference due to religious and political reasons. The oil crash in the world has hit Saudi Arabia the hardest. Saudi Arabia’s oil dependent economy has gone into a massive deficit of $98 billion in 2015. Many companies have gone bankrupt. One of the largest private sector companies, Saudi Oger, has not paid 50,000 employees since last summer. The Indian embassy has been very active, and forced King Salman to announce that Oger will pay but so far the promises remain unfulfilled.

Aside from the legal and financial side the socio-cultural impact of bonded-labour like employment terms is much more serious. These workers in hope of coming to the Middle East spend all their savings and borrow to get employment overseas. They have punishing work schedules and hours. Many of them can only visit their families once in two or three years. This reduces their households back home to almost a single-parent entity. The struggle for the mothers to rear large families single handedly results in high psychological cost of stress and tension resulting in friction and conflict. Many families become dysfunctional as a result of the absence of a parent and a spouse. There is very little counselling available in non-government organisations to deal with these social traumas. Similarly, in Saudi Arabia the role of civil society is almost non-existent. In other countries the social sector steps in and raises voice for stranded workers and to provide legal aid. However, the closed society of Saudi Arabia provides little space for any outside help to workers going through excruciating circumstances.

To make matters worse, family units dependent on overseas remittances further fall into the danger of not only being without a parent but also being without money in the case of a layoff. The stories of many Pakistanis living without salaries and work are harrowing. Their families back home are not able to send their children to school and college. As Dawlat Khan from Swat recently said in an interview, “ My wife sold her jewellery to pay off my son’s university fee, but now nothing is left to sell, so I don’t know what my other children will do and where we will all end up.”

The Indian embassy has been very active in providing food and other facilities to their nationals, but the Pakistani embassy has only been giving statements and not being able to negotiate for the rights of Pakistani workers. The shocking part is that Saudis have blatantly refused to recognise the Foreign Service Act between a migrant and Overseas Employment Promoter of Pakistan. What Pakistan’s government is doing about it remains a mystery. While Pakistan economy is sustained by remittances of overseas Pakistanis of which Saudi remittances are the largest source amounting to $19.9 billion in 2015-16, this indifference is a killer, literally. One Pakistani worker, Shahid Iqbal, hung himself in his room as he gave up all hopes of being relieved from abject misery. This makes it a foreign policy and an international relations emergency. But more than that, it needs a human relations emergency, something that the stranded Pakistanis might not find in the archives of heartless policymakers representing them in parliament.

The writer is a columnist and analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com