A look at the number of Pakistanis who departed in 2024

The Bureau of Immigration and Overseas Employment reports that over 811,000 Pakistanis departed the country in 2023 in search of better opportunities, and that over 700,000 continued that trend in 2024.

Future prospects for Pakistan are bleak due to the country’s long history of political instability and its worsening economic crises.

According to the bureau’s data, the United Arab Emirates gave visas to professionals in various categories, with Saudi Arabia issuing the second-highest number of visas.

According to Deputy Director Abdul Shakoor Soomro, there has been a rise in the need for skilled professionals in both Europe and the US.

There was a 300 percent spike in Pakistan’s brain drain problem in 2022, with up to 765 thousand highly educated and talented young people leaving the nation for better opportunities abroad. This included young doctors, engineers, accountants, and paramedics. The UAE and Saudi Arabia were the primary destinations for the majority of them.

As a result of this exodus of talent in 2022, Pakistan lost 7,000 engineers, 25,000 physicians, 1,600 nurses, 2,000 computer specialists, 6,500 accountants, 2,600 agricultural specialists, and 9,00 educators.