Around 22,000 overseas Pakistanis around the world are reported to be facing unemployment due to coronavirus crisis.
According to an Interior Ministry’s report, thousands of Pakistanis working in UAE, Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries have been laid off as the result of the economic repercussions of COVID-19 and the resulting lockdown. Companies around the world have been struggling to pay salaries to their employees and have been forced to execute mass layoffs.
Prior to this, Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari – Special Assistant to the PM for Overseas Pakistanis, announced that due to COVID-19 crisis 21,000 Pakistanis had lost their jobs in the Gulf countries alone.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), has been operating special flights to and from various countries to repatriate Pakistani citizens who have been facing grim circumstances of unemployment and being stranded due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Zulfi Bukhari has reaffirmed that government will continue to play its part in ensuring job security of overseas Pakistanis.
