Iraqis in Basra protest reliance on foreign oil workers

By Ali Jawad

BAGHDAD

Hundreds of unemployed Iraqis on Wednesday demonstrated in the oil-rich Basra province to protest the employment of foreign laborers in the local petroleum sector.

Protesting outside Basra's provincial headquarters, demonstrators chanted slogans decrying the practice of importing foreign laborers for use in the most lucrative sector of the national economy.

“Thousands of unemployed Iraqis, including numerous university graduates, remain jobless, while laborers from East Asia are brought in to work in the oilfields and refineries,” protester Mansour Hussein told Anadolu Agency.

“Some of these foreign workers make up to $3,000 per month while we remain jobless,” Hussein lamented.

Iraq's southern Basra province accounts for roughly 80 percent of the country’s total oil production.