Baghdad: Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ahmed Al-Asadi announced that the number of Arab and foreign workers in Iraq is no less than 800,000. Al-Asadi highlighted efforts to regulate the status of foreign workers, noting that Syrian workers have not benefited due to their illegal entry into the country. Most Syrian workers arrived through smuggling or from the Kurdistan Region.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, Al-Asadi explained that current laws require employers to hire one Iraqi worker for every foreign worker. However, there is collusion between some inspection committees and companies employing foreign workers. Currently, Iraqi workers registered with social security in various sectors make up approximately 10% of the workforce.

The Minister also discussed social welfare initiatives, stating that field research campaigns in 2023 have covered more than 960,000 families with social welfare benefits and over 160,000 with full-time employee benefits. Additionally, more than 150 million food baskets were distributed to beneficiaries in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade. A grant aimed at students in elementary, middle, and preparatory schools, as well as graduate students, has helped return hundreds of thousands of students to school.

Al-Asadi mentioned that over 50% of the Social Security Law has been amended, and a new law has been enacted to provide benefits for the private sector. Regarding retiree salaries, the minimum wage for insured retirees has been raised to 600,000 dinars, aligning it with government retiree salaries. A recovery campaign was launched to address misuse of social care, recovering approximately 170 billion dinars and identifying 300,000 social care abusers in 2023.