24-03-2025
Iraq competes with the Gulf States for foreign labor
Baghdad ( – The Iraqi Minister of Labor, Ahmed Al-Asadi, disclosed in a televised interview that Iraq started to compete with the Gulf States in the number of housekeepers and foreign labor.
According to a Baghdad 360 report, Al-Asadi stated that the number of foreign workers in the country has risen to 800,000.
Al-Asadi said that the bulk of foreign workers in Iraq are Syrians and that 90 percent of these workers are employed in restaurants in the capital, Baghdad.
This has a significant impact on Iraqi workers and contributes to the country's rising unemployment rate, according to Al-Asadi.
The majority of Syrian workers in Iraq entered the country illegally, mainly through the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
The number of illegal workers in factories, oil industries, and other workplaces is rising, according to the report.
Iraqi officials launched a massive crackdown on foreigners they claimed were not adhering to residence regulations in March 2024. After raids on their homes and places of employment, a large number of Syrians were arrested and deported, according to Rudaw News.
According to data from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), Iraq is home to over 260,000 Syrian refugees, of which over 254,000 are in Iraqi Kurdistan.
