Around 1.1 million Egyptians received visas to work abroad in 2011, down from 1.131 million in 2010, the state-run statistics agency CAPMAS reported on Tuesday.

The fall represents a decline of 0.2 per cent.

Contracts issued by the manpower ministry dropped to almost 486,595 in 2011 compared to 524,181 in 2010, a 10.5 per cent fall.

Saudi Arabia is the top Arab destination for permanent Egyptian workers based on the number of work permits issued. 622,131 work permits were issued for Egyptians to work in the kingdom in 2011, which represents 57 per cent of overall number of work permits issued to Egyptians by Arab countries.

Italy issued 25,122 work permits to Egyptians in 2011, 81.6 per cent of the total number issued by European countries.

CAPMAS said 36.7 per cent of the migrants had mid-level educational qualifications and 35 per cent had low qualifications.