Stranded in Saudi Arabia: FO under fire for ‘neglecting’ overseas workers

Standing committee on expats urges resolution to issue

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday came under fire in a parliamentary panel for its inability to resolve the matter of 8,000 Pakistani workers stranded in Saudi Arabia for the past two months without receiving their salaries or other dues.

Briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development on Thursday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Additional Secretary Tasawar Khan said that around 8,000 Pakistani workers in Saudi Arabia have not been paid their dues and salaries, some for nearly six months, while work permits of many others have not been renewed.

The official added that two teams from the Pakistani embassy had met with the management of the companies where the workers are contracted and requested them to settle all issues relating to dues and permits.



But when he was asked what the outcome was, Khan replied they “hope that the issue will be resolved”.

This failed to satisfy members of the committee. The panel, which was chaired by Aamir Ali Magsi, accused the FO and the Embassy in Riyadh of mishandling the issue since it took the government over a month to raise the matter with the kingdom.

Khan said that the stranded workers have been offered an agreement under which they can either return to Pakistan returning to Saudi Arabia when they are paid or they can stay in Saudi Arabia till they are paid.

According to documents shared with members of the panel, work permits of nearly 8,000 Pakistanis working in eight different regions of Saudi Arabia have not been renewed in addition to their pending dues.

The problems these workers were facing compounded when their company stopped providing food.

After Pakistani officials visited the workers, the food supply was restored in some regions including Jeddah and Riyadh, but around 1,600 workers have had to fend for themselves.

An agitated Shagufta Jumani of the Pakistan Peoples Party asked why the government had dragged the issue and what guarantee had the officials secured for timely payment to the stranded workers.

Khan responded that they were constantly building pressure on Saudi officials to resolve the crisis.

“If the government and its embassy cannot help them then they should close their embassy and consulates in that country,” Jumani said curtly while responding to PML-N lawmaker Rana Afzal Khan’s comment that the stranded workers had travelled to Saudi Arabia through private arrangements.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2016.