PAKISTAN - MIGRATION IN 1999

Labor migration from Pakistan did not experience major changes in 1999. Estimates from the government indicate that there are 3,180,973 Pakistanis abroad, distributed as follows: 605,000 in North America; 720,000 in the UK; 212,568 in other countries of Europe; 1,552,350 in the Middle East; 52,522 in the Far East; and 38,533 in other countries. Some 35,000 Pakistanis working in Greece without regular permit were regularized in 1999. According to the Interior Minister, there were 3,319 Pakistanis in jail in Saudi Arabia as of March 1999. Overseas Pakistanis, who were given the right to participate in national elections, tried to persuade the government to lift the ban to Pakistani women to work as domestic workers in Pakistanis families abroad. Approximately 5,500 Pakistanis have applied for asylum in the UK and protested the New Immigration and Asylum Bill, which enables Britain’s immigration officials to search and arrest irregular aliens.

The attempt to regularize the situation of perhaps 3.5 million aliens in Pakistan was first shelved at the beginning of the year and then resumed at the end of the year, after the takeover by General Pervez Musharraf. The government has decided to set up the Alien Registration Authority (ARA) for the regularization process. Foreigners in Pakistan include 1.16 million Bengalis, 2 million Afghans, 200,000 Burmese, Iranians, Iraquis, Sri Lankans and others. They work in garment factories, carpet making, fisheries and restaurants, while women are engaged as domestic workers. Under the plan, aliens were to be issued a three-year alien registration work permit. However, beginning in January, foreign workers will only be issued working visas, and no longer need to apply for working permits. Pakistan opened in April a university in the border city of Peshawar to give 2,000 Afghan girls the possibility to study.

Remittances to Pakistan have been declining since the military coup, as the situation of instability advised migrants to deposit their money in foreign banks. India is believed to benefit most of the situation.