KARACHI: Saudi Arabia remains the main source of Pakistan’s remittances despite global business shutdowns amid the coronavirus pandemic, central bank data showed on Monday.
Overseas Pakistani workers sent about $18.78 billion back home between July 2019 and April 2020, 5.5 percent more than in the previous fiscal year, with $4.4 billion remitted from Saudi Arabia alone, according to a statement issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Contrary to the expectations of most economists that money inflows would decline as many workers have been furloughed and repatriated amid the pandemic, $451.4 million was sent back home from Saudi Araba by Pakistani workers — 5.4 percent more than last year and only 0.2 percent less than in March 2020, SBP data showed.
Total remittances the country received in April amounted to $1.79 billion, 5.5 percent less than in the previous month.
The US emerged as Pakistan’s second largest remittance contributor after Saudi Arabia, with inflows of $401.9 million in April, followed by the United Arab Emirates with $353.8 million, and the United Kingdom with $226.6 million.
According to experts, there has been an increase in the use of official channels for money transfers in the wake of international flight suspensions and movement restrictions.
“As the airline industry is not operational, people who used to send money through personal contacts have resorted to the official channels,” Muzamil Aslam, senior financial expert, told Arab News.
But since layoffs are still expected to affect overseas Pakistanis, a government intervention may be required to further discourage unofficial transfers to sustain money inflows from abroad.
“Sustaining remittances with expected job losses abroad requires an unprecedented intervention to bring between $5 billion and $10 billion of hawala or hundi money through legal channels,” said Dr. Khaqan Hassan Najeeb, former adviser at the Ministry of Finance.
Hawala and hundi are informal ways of transferring money across borders.
Najeeb told Arab News that incentive programs such as lotteries could help put an end to illegal money transfers.
According to the Ministry of Finance, from July withholding tax exemption will be introduced for incoming remittances, while National Remittance Loyalty Program will be launched in September in collaboration with major commercial banks and government agencies to incentivize remitters.
Middle Eastern countries are major job markets for Pakistani workers. Since the beginning of this year alone, the region has provided employment to more than 171,500 Pakistanis — nearly 105,000 in Saudi Arabia alone, according to the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment.
Concerns are rising, however, whether workers will still be able to seek overseas jobs, as labor markets, also in the Middle East, have been upended by the coronavirus outbreak.
“More than 100,000 visas were issued prior to COVID-19. Some 65,000 people were ready to fly, but now their future is uncertain,” said Ikram Qureshi of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI).
“Around 70,000 workers have already registered themselves for repatriation from the Middle east region,” he added.
Pakistan's remittances from Saudi Arabia remain high despite economy slowdown
https://arab.news/rbkjp
Pakistan's remittances from Saudi Arabia remain high despite economy slowdown
- Remittances from Saudi Arabia in April were 5.4 higher than last year
- Inflows through official channels are on the rise amid international movement restrictions
UN says 270,000 Afghans have returned from Iran, Pakistan this year
- UNHCR says 110,000 Afghans returned from Iran while 160,000 returned from Pakistan since start of 2026
- Return numbers seem to have risen since Gulf war erupted on Feb. 28, says UNHCR official in Afghanistan
GENEVA: Some 270,000 Afghans have returned to their country from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, the UN said Tuesday, warning that the escalating Middle East war risked pushing the numbers higher.
UNHCR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, said that 110,000 Afghans had returned from Iran and another 160,000 had returned from Pakistan since the start of 2026.
And the numbers seem to have risen since the Middle East erupted on February 28, with the United States and Israel unleashing a barrage of strikes on Iran, and Tehran responding with drone and missile strikes on Israeli and US interests across the region.
Since then, there have been some 1,700 returns from Iran to Afghanistan each day, Arafat Jamal, UNHCR’s representative in Afghanistan, told reporters in Geneva.
Speaking from Islam Qala, on the Afghan-Iranian border, he said the situation there was “deceptively calm.”
“Returns are orderly but freighted with tension and apprehension,” he said, adding that with the hostilities elsewhere escalating, “I do fear there is more to come.”
“We are preparing for massive returns.”
He pointed out that Afghanistan was “facing the ramifications of what is happening with Iran,” while clashes have erupted along the Afghan border with Pakistan.
The new Middle East war, he warned, was “layering itself on top of an existing war on another frontier,” Jamal said.
UNHCR highlighted that the latest crises came after returns to Afghanistan had already been “exceptionally high” in recent years.
More than five million Afghans had returned from neighboring countries in the past two years, including 1.9 million returning from Iran last year alone.
Jamal warned that “many Afghan families are now facing cycles of displacement: first forced to flee Afghanistan, later displaced again inside Iran due to conflict, and now returning once more to Afghanistan.”
“And upon return in Afghanistan, the triply-displaced enter a spiral of precarity and uncertainty.”
Returns from Pakistan had meanwhile stabilized in recent weeks, as the main crossing point at Torkham remained closed due to the tensions there, Jamal said.
But he warned that “movements could increase sharply once the border reopens.”
UNHCR and the UN children’s agency UNICEF said Tuesday they were working to strengthen their capacity to operate at the borders and within Afghanistan.
But “given the scale of returns and the financial constraints facing humanitarian operations, additional support will be needed if arrivals increase,” UNHCR said, without specifying the amount needed.
