Kuwait City: In an effort to increase remittances, the Pakistani Minister of Expatriates and Human Resources announced that Pakistan is planning on sending 100,000 skilled workers to Kuwait, local media reported.
According to the Associated Press of Pakistan, a Pakistani news portal, a senior officer in the ministry said, “a formal request to this effect has been forwarded to the authorities concerned in Kuwait and reply is still awaited.”
The officer went on to say Pakistan has a willing and strong workforce that is capable of working in various fields, therefore increasing remittance will allow for job creation in different countries.
In addition, he said that the government has boosted efforts to sign a memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Kuwait and Pakistan, in hopes of ramping up the number of Pakistani workers to Kuwait.
The Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on OP&HRD, Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari, pointed out that although a MOU would streamline a state-to-state workforce, Pakistanis could enter Kuwait for employment under employer-employee agreement.
While the MOU has not been finalized, Kuwait has agreed to recruit 444 Pakistani’s to work in the medical field as doctors, paramedic and nurses.
Former MOUs
In October 2019, Kuwait decided, in principle, to sign a MOU with Pakistan, which would allow skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers to enter Kuwait and work in a variety of fields from health care and education, to agriculture and construction.
During the Foreign Minister of Pakistan’s visit last year, the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, said that he will make an effort to resolve the visa restrictions for Pakistanis. In 2011, Kuwait banned nationals from Pakistan including, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, from entering the country.
As of 2019, there are around 116,000 Pakistanis residing in Kuwait, making up 0.03 per cent of the overall three million expat population. While 95 per cent of Pakistani foreign workers reside in the GCC, only 0.5 per cent of them live in Kuwait, a report by Al Rai showed.
