Pakistani migrants are in trouble

It is not only a matter of giving them the right to vote in Pakistani general elections; they are also being deprived of their basic human rights while living abroad. The main cause of the miserable conditions of the labourers working in the Middle-East is their ignorance of the local rules. In most of the cases, they are cheated by the agents, who immediately throw them in a contract of bonded labor after they reach an Arab country, giving them employment that makes them slaves to their kafeels and are compelled to pay almost half of their salary to the kafeels for a long time. They face the worst types of working conditions. They work long hours with no health care and no proper holiday facilities. There are double standards of laws for them and locals. Besides this, thousands of poor people are robbed in an attempt to reach somewhere abroad for a better future. There is a need for a comprehensive and effective awareness-raising campaign from the government in this regard. People must know, who are the authorized agents for recruiting labor for different countries and what the criteria are to verify their identification and legal formalities.

Besides this, the need to inform these illiterate people about the necessary laws, language, and norms of the concerned country is missing in all cases. These poor laborers send billions of dollars in remittances to Pakistan every year. We must not forget that there are also thousands of billionaire Pakistanis living in the USA, England, Europe, Australia, and Canada who are willing to invest in Pakistan. They can bring huge amounts and the latest technology to Pakistan, but they are waiting for a neat and clean government and an improved structure of governance in the country. There are hundreds of examples and open secrets of their attempts to bring their investments to Pakistan. They faced terrible hardships. They were not annoyed by the bureaucracy, but large amounts were also demanded as a bribe by the ruling politicians. There are cunning, greedy politicians and there are their stooges, bureaucrats, especially those bureaucrats who are sitting at the most important posts and are puppets in the hands of those powers that are actively working to destroy our economy since the emergence of Pakistan.

Every sane person knows very well that there is a need for a mass purge of such people from our systems to march ahead. We can look at the Chinese wealthy people who earned money from the four corners of the world and brought their investments to their country to strengthen their nation. No other nation helps our economy more than our own people. There is no other hindrance in the way of national progress but these dirty political rulers and their puppet bureaucrats. From the government side, Overseas Pakistanis Foundation was established in 1979 with the objectives of Welfare of Overseas Pakistanis and their Families under the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development. This foundation established a school in Islamabad for the children of overseas Pakistanis and did some other work, but failed in any tangible effort to get back the occupied properties of overseas Pakistanis from the land mafias. Similarly, it could not have any effective coordination with Pakistani embassies to solve Pakistani immigrants’ problems in their respective countries. The ministry couldn’t do anything for Human Resource Development either.

Nevertheless, different NGOs, some of them with partial government funding, are doing positive and commendable work in this area. “Migrant Resource Center is one of these organizations that is continuously active for this cause. It has recently arranged two training workshops for journalists in Islamabad and Lahore. The purpose was to strengthen knowledge, access to information, and tools for journalists to better report on migration in Pakistan. Each was a three-day workshop. The training provided the participants with an understanding of the  regional and international context of migration; explained the terminology of migration; and considered existing media coverage of migration, especially its ethical aspects. The workshops dispel key commonly held myths on migration and present a primer on the national legal framework governing migration.

Migration is not an easy topic to cover. It is mired in complexity, opacity, and the concerted effort of some, with a particular agenda, to perpetuate myths and misconceptions. Challenges faced by journalists in covering migration, and methods to overcome them, were also addressed in the training. The journalists found the training modules highlighting common myths around migration, the resources that can be utilized to access the most recent data on migration, and the guidance on the optimal steps for creating multimedia content on migration very relevant and interesting.

The experts also shared the best practices in migration journalism, and one of the key highlights was putting the individual first and giving migrants a voice. Myra Imran, Vice President of the National Press Club, shared that “it also requires the careful and accurate use of terminology, prudent use of pictures, and care not to contribute to the reinforcement of stereotypes and myths.” Talha Ahad, CEO of The Centrum Media (TCM), while elaborating on the importance of digital media, its visual impact, and the ways to effectively use the social media tool, shared that “the internet and digital platforms offer traffickers numerous tools to recruit, exploit, and  control victims; organize their transport and accommodation; advertise victims and reach out to potential clients; communicate among perpetrators; and hide criminal proceeds – with greater speed, cost-effectiveness, and anonymity.”

Irregular migration remains a high-priority issue for the government of Pakistan. The government, national and international organs have high-priority significant steps in preventing and combating the phenomenon. Migrant smuggling and human trafficking, like any other enterprise, are processes that end up making illicit money through exploitation. Traffickers often lure people with false job offers, including fake modeling advertisements, sham recruitment agencies, and high recruitment fees charged by illegal labor agents or sub-agents to entrap Pakistanis in indebted and bonded labor, including in Gulf countries. The training overall contributed to more evidence and human rights-based, ethical and responsible reporting on migration.

Other interesting and learning sessions included irregular migration and human trafficking, including legal framework, irregular migration trends, legal and labor migration, migration trends and data, digital story telling, reporting ethics, avoiding hate speech, and sending stories to the editor, conducted by Azaz Syed, Hassan Gilani, Dr. G.M. Arif, Fauzia Rana, and Ayesha Qaisarani.

With 50 years of teaching experience, Professor Dr. Shafiq Jullandhry, a noted writer and author of award-winning books, is former chairman of Punjab University's Mass Communication Department (now School of Communication Studies); also heads Elaaf Club and Pakistan Media Guild as president. He can be reached at [email protected].