Islamabad: As many as 90 per cent of beggars arrested in foreign countries belong to Pakistan, reported The Dawn.

The Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis was informed on Wednesday that a large number of beggars from Pakistan were moving abroad, which has further spurred "human trafficking".

Overseas Ministry Secretary Zulfikar Haider disclosed this during a discussion in the Senate panel on the issue of skilled and unskilled labour leaving the country.

Haider told the committee that a staggering “90 per cent of beggars” arrested in foreign countries were of Pakistani origin, Dawn reported.

He further said that many beggars exploited pilgrim visas to travel to Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq.

Adding to this, he noted that a significant number of pickpockets were arrested at holy sites and were identified to be Pakistani nationals.

Meanwhile, Haider said that Japan has now emerged as a new destination of such visitors, according to Dawn.

Moreover, he emphasized Pakistan's historical role in exporting skilled labour and expressed optimism that the country's foreign remittances would increase when professionals went abroad.

He further said that Saudi Arabia now preferred skilled labour over untrained individuals, according to Dawn.

Hasan also noted that as many as 50,000 engineers in Pakistan were unemployed.

"India has reached the moon, while we stumble every day,” the senator added.

He also informed that that approximately three million people were in Saudi Arabia, 1.5 million Pakistanis were in the UAE, while 0.2 million were in Qatar.