Prime Minister Imran Khan urged the international community to devise a combined strategy to protect the most vulnerable segments of society, particularly the workers from the COVID-19 impacts.
Prime Minister Imran Khan urged the international community to formulate a combined strategy to protect the most vulnerable segments of society, particularly the workers, from the Covid-19 impacts.
Addressing the online ILO Global Summit on Covid-19 and the World of Work, Imran pointed out that many countries, including Pakistan, are dependent on remittances sent by workers outside the country. “While the host countries also face many problems due to coronavirus, we need to persuade them to be more sympathetic to these workers,” he added.
Imran stressed that the most affected these labourers was the lockout. Sharing Pakistan ‘s initial lockdown experience, the premier said it has rendered unemployed daily wage earners and labourers. “So we came up with the smart lockdown idea that stopped public meetings, but we permitted other activities such as the reopening of the construction and agriculture sectors,” he added.
“Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the most affected by the virus, and they hire the majority of labourers, which is why we need to come up with the concept of solving their problems,” he said. The Prime Minister, speaking of the overseas labourers, said a collective strategy is needed to tell other countries to be sympathetic to these labourers.
“We need a specific strategy about how we can ‘soften the effect’ about the world’s labourers,” he said.
“We’d love to share thoughts with the world; we ‘d love to learn what some other countries do. Pakistan will keep the situation informed to other nations, and how we plan to move forward, “he added. “I ‘m sure, the exchange of ideas will help us solve our problems.”
Extracted from City42 News
