ISLAMABAD: Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Sajid Hussain Turi left on a 10-day official visit on Monday to Switzerland, Romania, Greece and Portugal where he will meet the authorities concerned and the Pakistani community.

The purpose of the foreign visit is to create new employment opportunities for Pakistanis in different countries, to discuss the problems of the Pakistani community with the authorities of the respective countries and to promote bilateral relations.

He also plans to meet the director general of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva and discuss with him the rehabilitation and relief of the workers affected by the recent floods in Pakistan.

According to the government survey, the recent floods have rendered as many as 3.6 million workers jobless.

The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, with the support of ILO, has already started a cash-for-work programme for the rehabilitation of flood-affected workers in Balochistan and Sindh, which will be extended to all affected areas of the country.

The federal minister, before the departure, said that Romania, Portugal, Italy, Greece and other western countries are in need of large scale manpower.

“We have planned to sign agreements with different countries for sending Pakistani workers and professionals there,” he said.

He further said that he would talk to the authorities of the respective countries to facilitate the process of obtaining visas and immigration so that maximum Pakistani labour force and professionals could be sent to these countries in the shortest possible time.

He also talked about the valuable services of overseas Pakistanis.

During the current financial year, Pakistan received record remittances of more than 31 billion dollars, which is a major part of the country’s economy.

He informed that his first priority is to provide maximum facilities to overseas Pakistanis and solve their problems immediately and in this regard he had requested the community welfare attachés of respective countries to facilitate the people of Pakistan in the best possible way.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2022