ISLAMABAD, July 3: Immigration experts and parliamentarians Thursday called for giving migrant workers the right to form unions to press for their demands, besides reducing the cost of emigration.

The demand was made during a meeting titled “Overseas Pakistani Workers: Significance and Issues of Migration”, organised by the Pakistan Institute of Legislative and Development and Transparency (Pildat) at a local hotel.

The meeting was attended by Solidarity Centre USA Executive Director Ellie Larson, Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid President Zia Awan, former minister of state for overseas Pakistanis Tariq Azeem, MNA Pervaiz Khan, Senator Firdous Kausar and representatives from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and labour unions.

The speakers said the cost emigration was higher and that it was impossible for people to visit abroad for both work and education. They stressed that the process of emigration must be made easier and cheaper.

They asked the Gulf countries to permit labours to form their unions in order to make them able to express their legitimate demands and reservations.

The speakers said since food crisis and price hike had become a global phenomena, the people would move to other countries for improving living standard and to escape poverty, war and famine.

According to them, the Ministry for Overseas Pakistanis must arrange training courses for workers in order to enable them to work with confidence, and stressed establishment of training schools across the country in this regard.

They said low salaries were being offered to Pakistani workers as they lacked skills.

Meanwhile, Pildat executive director Ahmed Bilal Mehboob said international migration was one of the defining issues of the 21st century as more people were on the move today than at any other point in the history.

He said though issues related to overseas Pakistani workers and migration were not generally seen to be glamorous, yet it was very important for policymakers and practitioners to develop a comprehensive understanding of the significance of these issues.

Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis’ Policy Planning Cell chairman Dr Sabur Ghayur the drew attention of the audience to the need for promoting migration.

He said this was important as it addressed employment and poverty issues, tackled development resource constraints, and contributed to human capital formation as well as to brain gain.

PIDE’s Faculty of Development Studies Dean Dr G.M. Arif, while speaking on the trends and magnitude of migration, noted that the ultimate goal was reintegration of migrant workers in Pakistan.

He said there was a need to focus on improving the skill level of Pakistani migrant workers so that they might be able to compete with migrants from other countries like India, Bangladesh, Philippines and China.

Zia Awan said Pakistan was not yet a signatory to the International Convention on Protection of Migrant Workers and it was imperative for Pakistan to ratify the law in order to protect the rights of migrant workers.