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Labour ministry should organise camps

THE call of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to the embassies and consulates of foreign countries to organise awareness campaigns for expat workers from their countries is strange.

Those campaigns should actually be implemented by the labour ministry as it is something that directly concerns them. Since the ministry understands the labour law and labourers, and as it has experts in labour law, it should be the one to adopt such kind of campaigns and announce them in the embassies and consulates.

As far as translating those programmes and campaigns into the languages of the labourers — such as Urdu — is concerned, that would not be a big issue, as the Ministry of Law can entrust that job to professional translators.

We absolutely agree with the labour ministry that the ignorance of most labourers about local regulations and other measures, such as visa procedures, sometimes leads them to assemble in front of the labour ministry and other departments concerned. Just like what happened recently when some of the labourers of one of the construction companies gathered in front of the Ministry of Labour asking them to hasten the transfer of the corpse of one of their colleagues who died naturally. The labourers did not know the regulations and procedures, as in normal cases, completing the formalities of transfer of bodies takes time.

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