Return of Pakistanis from Dubai and Saudi After Corona

UAE has been second home to Pakistanis for a long time. Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis are employed in UAE including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and in adjoining countries like Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. In the aftermath of Coronavirus, these people are the hardest hit. Return of Pakistanis from Dubai and Saudi after Corona is starting soon.

As the expatriates in Dubai and other places in UAE don’t really hold any residential or citizenship rights, they are stuck with what they have. They don’t really have any welfare payments and no other support available. As the Dubai got locked down and people got fired, their work permits are expirting and they cannot afford rent, food and medicine. Things have become really hard for loads of expats.

Pakistani government has really shown any empathy towards their expats in UAE. They haven’t provided them any support through various diplomatic channels available. Return of Pakistanis from Dubai and Saudi After Corona has been in limbo for sometime and now people have lost trust in this government.

Other governments around the world are very active in getting their people back or rendering them help. On 4 March, by the request of their country’s respective governments, 215 people stranded in Wuhan – from countries that include Syria, Iraq, Mauritania, Sudan, Brazil, Egypt, Yemen and Jordan – were flown to the UAE capital in a plane equipped with medical facilities. On 6 April, Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company, owner of the ExCeL London conference centre, turned the conference centre into a coronavirus hospital for up to 4,000 patients in the UK. Two planes were chartered by the government of the UAE authorities to bring 80 Emirati nationals home from the UK. On 12 April, UAE announced its intent to arrange repatriation flights for Indians and other stranded citizens stranded in UAE and wishing to go back to their countries.

Repatriation situation in Pakistan post corona is dismal. Since the reopening of the Pakistani airspace from April 3, more than 75,000 people have been repatriated. Despite the coronavirus crisis, $20.6 billion were remitted to the country, but this useless government is not showing any mercy to them.