Iraqis protest in Baghdad, Basra, and Kurdistan Region over hiring freeze
Shafaq News- Baghdad/ Basra/ Al-Sulaymaniyah
Protests over stalled public-sector hiring spread across Iraq Monday, with medical graduates and contract workers demonstrating in Baghdad, Basra, and the Kurdistan Region, demanding jobs and formal appointment orders.
In Baghdad, graduates from medical, health, and nursing programs, classes of 2023, 2024, and 2025, gathered in front of the Ministry of Health building, calling on authorities to issue their long-delayed appointment orders.
The southern city of Basra saw a parallel protest at the gates of the South Refineries Company, where workers affiliated with the FCC project blocked all access roads since early morning. The closure prevented employees from entering the facility, stranded outgoing shift workers, caused a vehicle backlog, and prompted a heavy security deployment.
In the Kurdistan Region, unappointed doctors warned Monday of escalating civil action after a ten-day deadline they issued to the regional government expired without a response. The ultimatum had been in effect since April 19.
"The concerned authorities provided no response within the specified ten-day deadline, despite graduates' demands for a clear appointment plan," Dastan Bisharat, a representative of the doctors, told Shafaq News. He said more than ten months had passed since graduation with no progress on appointments, leaving the group no option but to act.
The doctors' core demand is the immediate appointment of new graduates at regional government expense —on equal terms with the 2024 cohort— pending a permanent solution, alongside a clear timetable and defined mechanisms for resolving the health sector's employment crisis.
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