Cairo: Thousands of nurses from India are expected to come and join Kuwait hospitals soon amid growing cooperation between the two countries, an Indian diplomat was quoted as disclosing. 

The newcomers are also going to join private hospitals in Kuwait as part of their efforts to increase the number of Indian nurses working in the country’s health sector, as per a newspaper quoted Indian Ambassador to Kuwait Sibi George as saying at a recent Indian mango festival. 

As per the diplomat, Indian-Kuwait health cooperation has remarkably grown during the time of the fight against COVID-19. 

He said that the Indian embassy aims to increase the number of Indian nursing staff also working at Kuwaiti government and health insurance hospitals.

The diplomat also added that he is planning to meet in the following weeks with Kuwaiti officials in order to discuss the execution of a memorandum of understanding on recruiting Indian domestic workers in Kuwait. 

Indians are among the largest immigrant communities in Kuwait, where foreigners make up nearly 3.4 million of the country’s total population of around 4.6 million.

However, the Philippines have not yet been appointed to government hospitals due to the delay in the attestation process.

Attestation of professional certificates is essential for the nurses to become eligible to work in the Arabian country.

Despite a critical shortage of nurses, the Ministry of Higher Education has still not attested the certificates of nurses hired from India and the Philippines over two years ago, as per reports. 

However, ministry officials stated that the Indian and Philippine embassies were delaying the process of attestation.

The Undersecretary at the Ministry of Health, Essa Al-Khalifa, could resolve the issue by issuing a directive that said that doctors and nurses be hired only on a contract basis, the newspaper said.