Fact-check: More than 800,000 migrated out of Pakistan in 2022, highest in six years

Multiple social media accounts and former prime minister Imran Khan have alleged that a record nearly 800,000 skilled and unskilled Pakistanis left the country in 2022 in search of jobs abroad.

The claim is true.

Claim

In a press conference held in December, Khan said: “The situation is so bad that 750,000 Pakistanis have moved out of the country in seven months. These include professionals, such as doctors and engineers.”

On December 13, a former government official, Hasaan Khawar, also wrote on Twitter that 765,000 people have left Pakistan in 2022.

While others put the number at 7.5 million.

Fact

As per the latest figures, a record 832,339 Pakistanis have migrated out of the country in the year 2022, which is the highest since 2016.

According to the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment, a department of the state which regulates overseas employment, there has been a nearly 200% increase in Pakistanis who left the country in 2022 from the year 2021.

Of 832,339 people who emigrated, 90,000 were skilled manpower, including doctors, engineers, information technology experts, accountants, agriculturists, managers and others.

While 799,507 went to the Middle East, including 514,909 to Saudi Arabia, 128,477 to UAE, 82,380 to Oman, 57,999 to Qatar, 13,653 to Bahrain and 2,089 to Kuwait.

The majority of the workforce moved out from Punjab, therefore 460,302, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 225,272 left.

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