Foreign workers at the back of the queue for Covid-19 vaccine in Kuwait
The foreigners who power Kuwait’s economy, serve its society and make up 70 per cent of its population are struggling to get coronavirus vaccines.
Unlike other Gulf Arab states that have administered doses to masses of foreign workers in a race to reach herd immunity, the oil-rich sheikhdom has come under fire for vaccinating its own people first.
That leaves legions of labourers from Asia, Africa and elsewhere, who clean Kuwaiti nationals’ homes, care for their children, drive their cars and bag their groceries, still waiting for their first doses, despite bearing the brunt of the pandemic.
“The only people I’ve seen at the vaccination centre were Kuwaiti,” said a 27-year-old Kuwaiti doctor. “Kuwait has a citizens-first policy for everything, including when it comes to public health.”
Kuwaiti authorities did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
When Kuwait’s vaccination registration site went live in December, authorities declared that healthcare workers, older adults and those with underlying conditions would be first in the queue. As weeks ticked by, however, it became increasingly clear the lion’s share of doses was going to Kuwaitis, regardless of their age or health.
Kuwait’s labour system, which links migrants’ residency status to their jobs and gives employers big power, prevails across the Gulf Arab states. But hostility toward migrants long has burned hotter in Kuwait.
The legacy of the 1991 Gulf War, which triggered mass deportations of Palestinian, Jordanian and Yemeni workers whose leaders had supported Iraq in the conflict, fuelled anxiety about the need for self-reliance in Kuwait that endures today, even as southeast Asian labourers rushed to fill the void.
A 30-year-old Indian woman who has spent her whole life in Kuwait watched her Instagram feed fill with celebratory photos of Kuwaiti teenagers getting the jab. Her father, 62, a diabetic with high blood pressure, could not, nor the rest of her relatives living there.
“All the Kuwaitis I know are vaccinated,” she said. “It’s more than just annoying, it’s a realisation that no, this is not cool, there is no way to feel like I belong here anymore.”
Kuwait has vaccinated its citizens at a rate six times that of non-citizens, the country’s health ministry revealed earlier this year. at the time, despite some 238,000 foreigners registering online to book an appointment, only 18,000 of them – mostly doctors, nurses and well-connected workers in state oil companies – were actually called in to receive the vaccine. Meanwhile, some 119,000 Kuwaitis were vaccinated.
While foreigners wait for jabs, medical workers say Kuwaiti citizens remain reluctant to register because of vaccine conspiracy theories shared widely on social media. Infections have soared, prompting the government to impose a strict nightly curfew last month.
As of this week, 500,000 people have received at least one dose of either Pfizer-biontech or Oxford-astrazeneca, according to health authorities.