Pakistan has come under pressure to repatriate thousands of its migrant workers after Abu Dhabi threatened to reconsider labour relations with countries that refuse to take back their citizens during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Pakistani Consulate General in Dubai said that 227 “passengers stranded” in the UAE were flown back during the weekend from Dubai and other Emirati cities. This is a fraction of the number of Pakistani citizens waiting to return to Islamabad.
Two Emirati newspapers reported that more than 40,000 Pakistanis in the country had registered with the consulate to return to their country. There is no clarification over when other flights would begin.
The first Pakistan International Airlines flight carrying 227 “stranded passengers” from Dubai and other emirates left for Islamabad on the evening of April 18, Pakistan’s consulate-general in Dubai said in a Twitter post.
Pakistan is a major labor supplier to the U.A.E., with more than 1 million Pakistanis living and working in the country.
The U.A.E. said earlier in April it would review labor relations with states refusing to evacuate citizens as thousands of migrant laborers lost jobs or did not receive salaries from employers due to lockdowns imposed over the coronavirus pandemic.
The total number of cases of infection in the six Gulf Cooperation Council states increased to 26,600 with 167 deaths recorded despite measures to contain its spread, such as stopping passenger flights and imposing curfews, and in several cases isolating neighbourhoods inhabited by a large number of low-income expatriate workers.
