As demand for healthcare experts rise amid COVID-19, over 220 Pakistani doctors, paramedics and nurses will be leaving for Kuwait tomorrow (October 22) the Special Assistant to Prime Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Syed Zulfikar Bukhari informed.

As per details, the development comes following an agreement signed between Pakistan and Kuwait in July. Bukhari informed that Kuwait has expressed its intention to provide employment to over a thousand Pakistani health professionals.

Last month the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resources announced that Pakistan is planning on sending 100,000 skilled workers to Kuwait.

A senior officer in the ministry said, “a formal request to this effect has been forwarded to the authorities concerned in Kuwait, and the reply is still awaited.” 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.

Meanwhile, Special Assistant Bukhari, pointed out that although an MOU would streamline a state-to-state workforce, Pakistanis could enter Kuwait for employment under an employer-employee agreement.

Earlier, the Italian government permitted Pakistani nationals to avail seasonal and non-seasonal work visas for the year 2020-21. Over 30,000 work visas would be issued by the Italian government to the nationals from a few non-EU countries, including Pakistan.