A DROP of 64pc in irregular migration from Pakistan towards Europe is an encouraging development. According to Frontex data cited by the FIA, the decline was recorded in January-February this year compared with the corresponding period in 2025. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has now set the considerably more ambitious target of eliminating illegal migration altogether. But the more important question is what Pakistan should expect in return for helping Europe meet one of its central migration goals. If Islamabad is demonstrating that it can curb irregular departures, cooperation with European states should no longer be confined mainly to border controls, interceptions and returns. It should increasingly produce something Pakistan has repeatedly sought: more regulated avenues for its citizens to work abroad. Migration cooperation cannot remain a one-way arrangement.

The framework is already there. The EU-Pakistan Talent Partnership is intended to facilitate labour mobility while matching Pakistani skills with shortages in sectors such as IT, construction, renewable energy, hospitality, agriculture and textiles. Italy has separately allocated 10,500 jobs to Pakistani workers over three years across seasonal and non-seasonal categories. These initiatives are useful, but they should be the beginning rather than the extent of a broader shift. Pakistan’s success in curbing irregular migration gives it stronger grounds to press for wider legal employment opportunities. That would serve both sides. European economies need workers in a range of sectors, while Pakistan has a large population seeking employment abroad. More importantly, legal routes provide an alternative to the smugglers whose business depends on the absence of accessible ones. The next phase of migration cooperation should therefore be judged not only by how sharply irregular departures fall, but by whether safer and lawful routes expand alongside them. If Pakistan is expected to help close the illegal door, Europe should help open the legal one.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2026