Business
Kerala delegation to visit Kuwait over nurses recruitment
Thiruvananthapuram, March 24
A delegation from Kerala will visit Kuwait to discuss about recruitment of Indian nurses, a minister said on Tuesday.
State
Minister for Diaspora K.C. Joseph told IANS that he and Minister of
Labour Shibhu Baby John held talks over this issue with Chief Minister
Oommen Chandy on Tuesday.
"The Kuwait government has entrusted
the job to recruit nurses on us. We will send a delegation of officials
there next week to discuss it with the Indian embassy and the Kuwait
government. We expect governments of other Middle-East countries to
approach the Indian mission for the recruitment of nurses," said
Joseph.
A directive from the ministry of overseas Indian affairs
issued last week, entrusting the task of recruitment from April 30 to
state-owned Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants
and Roots-Norka, the agency that looks after the welfare of Kerala
diaspora.
"In the meeting, it was decided to strengthen our
Roots-Norka offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. After our team returns
from Kuwait, we will come to know how many vacancies would be there. We
expect other countries to follow what Kuwait has done," added Joseph.
John told IANS that around 20,000 nurses are able to find jobs abroad every year.
"We foresee an expense of around Rs.50,000 which nurses will have to bear as the cost of recruitment," said John.
Chandy
informed ministers in the meeting that he got a letter from the
external affairs ministry which requested to ensure no nurses be send to
Libya and Iraq, said John.