ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has sent more than 3,500 doctors and health professionals to Kuwait during the pandemic, the prime minister’s adviser on overseas Pakistanis said.
Pakistan and Kuwait signed an initial agreement for 600 Pakistani medical professionals to work in the Gulf state in July 2020. After that more Pakistani health workers found employment in Kuwait.
Arab News reported, “Pakistan has sent more than 3,500 doctors, nurses and technicians to Kuwait during the pandemic and 3,000 more are in the pipeline, while at the same time, Saudi Arabia is recruiting hundreds of medical professionals too,” the PM’s aide Ayub Afridi said, as quoted in a statement by his office.
Kuwait had suspended visas for nationals from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2011 over what it said was difficult security conditions in the five countries. Pakistan began visa resumption talks with Kuwait in early 2020, after which the first group of nurses, doctors and medical technicians traveled to the Gulf state in October that year.
More groups had gone since, as talks continued, and in mid-2021, the Gulf state resumed issuing business and family visas for Pakistani nationals.
