Dubai, Feb 17(ANI): Scores of expat nurse are to be replaced by Omani nationals in the ongoing Omanization project aimed at getting more locals into work, Times of Oman reported. There will be 200 nurses replaced across the country, Oman’s Ministry of Health, confirmed - applications will be open from March to 14. Oman’s government introduced a six-month expat visa ban in January last year, which was later extended.

The visa ban, implemented at the end of January last year, resulted in the hiring of 64,386 Omanis in private sector companies and establishments and 4,125 more in government agencies. Gulf countries have been historically dependent on expatriate workers to power their economies; with a 2013 study indicating as much as 71 percent of Oman’s labor force are non-nationals. In Qatar, expatriate workforce was as high as 95 percent while in the UAE it was 94 percent; 83 percent in Kuwait; 64 percent in Bahrain and 49 percent in Saudi Arabia.

The Gulf states have since launched nationalization programs to absorb more of their citizens into the labor force, as well as address high levels of unemployment. Between December 2018 and November last year, a total of 60,807 expatriate workers left Oman’s labor force or an equivalent 3.6 percent reduction in their numbers, which now stands at 1,734,882.