KARACHI: Pakistan secured the second position among the countries that won the highest domestic worker recruitment contracts in Saudi Arabia during the month of December 2021 as the kingdom recorded an increase in the total recruitment contracts, the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development data shows.
The Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development’s Musaned platform, specialized in the recruitment of domestic workers, recorded an increase of more than 15 percent in the total recruitment contracts of domestic workers during the fourth quarter of the year 2021.
The platform indicated that Bangladesh topped the list of countries with 12,000 contracts during the month of December, according to the statistics released by Musaned this week. Pakistan stood second with more than 11,000 contracts, while India was able to make around 11,000 contracts.
The increase in domestic worker contracts comes as the Saudi labor market continues to expand, mainly due to the launch of several mega projects under the Saudi Vision 2030, according to a Pakistani overseas employment promotor.
“We are receiving a lot of enquiries from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates with the restoration of routine life after the COVID-19,” Sarfraz Zahoor Cheema, former chairman of the Pakistan Overseas Employment Promotors Association, told Arab News on Sunday.
“We will see more export of manpower from Pakistan during the current and next years to various sectors of the kingdom.”
Cheema, however, said that Pakistani workers were not trained for domestic employment as compared to Bangladesh and particularly Philippines, which had developed it as an industry.
Saudi Arabia is utilizing Musaned to add several new countries to its list for the recruitment of domestic workers in 2022, according to Alson World, a communication strategies development firm that operates in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. The kingdom is keen to have workers from countries that fit into Saudi families, based on epidemics, crime rate, language, education, expected recruitment cost, salaries and other criteria.
Recruitment contracts of domestic workers increased to 65,000 in October 2021 and more than 69,000 in November 2021. In December, the ceiling rose to 76,000 contracts, recording a steady increase by the end of 2021.
Based on the November figures, Philippines and Bangladesh secured 13,000 recruitment contracts, followed by Egypt with more than 9,000 contracts.
Philippines recorded the same figure in October, while the number from Bangladesh stood at more than 11,000 contracts. Uganda was ranked third with around 10,000 contracts.
Musaned aims to govern, automate and facilitate procedures for the recruitment of domestic workers and increase the level of protection of the rights of all parties by managing the contracting process between individuals and recruitment offices.
It also aims to the manage the relationship between Saudi recruitment offices and domestic worker recruitment firms in countries exporting manpower.
Pakistan secures second highest domestic worker contracts in Saudi Arabia in Dec. 2021
https://arab.news/9tr57
Pakistan secures second highest domestic worker contracts in Saudi Arabia in Dec. 2021
- Bangladesh topped the list of countries with 12,000 contracts in December 2021
- Pakistani overseas employment promotor hopes for more export of manpower this year
No casualties as blast derails Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s south
- Passengers were stranded and railway staffers were clearing the track after blast, official says
- In March 2025, separatist militants hijacked the same train with hundreds of passengers aboard
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
