Our saviours abroad

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the global economy. The contagious disease has forced many businesses and industries, which cannot switch to work from home, to shut. In part, it forced the national economy to register, for the first time, negative growth. And while the country tackles immense economic challenges at home, it is now facing a crucial problem — the loss of some external inflows.

For years now, the only thing shoring up Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves was a steady stream of remittances from its army of migrant workers around the world. The largest contributors to this remittance economy are the millions of workers in the Gulf. When the pandemic hit, it impacted thousands of these workers. Many of them, particularly labourers, lost their jobs and with it their only means of staying in these countries. The government operated emergency flights to bring many of these people back in the past four months.

It was recently suggested that some 5 million households, who have at least one member of their family working abroad, face a drop in remittances — often the only source of income for many of these households. Another projection suggested that future remittance flows are expected to decline by 21.2% in 2020 and 19.4% in 2021, with the full impact of the shrinking remittances to manifest over the next 18 months. This will prove to be a major blow to the national economy as it struggles to stay afloat in these testing times.

And then there is the issue of reabsorbing the migrant workers who have returned and may not be able to leave soon. These are all very tough questions with very complex answers. The government must speak to these countries and ensure dues of its workers are cleared as early as possible. It must also convince these countries to provide a pathway for the return of migrant workers.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2020.

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