Shafaq News-Baghdad/ Basra/ Al-Sulaymaniyah
Protests overstalled public-sector hiring spread across Iraq Monday, with medical graduatesand 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 onauthorities to issue their long-delayed appointment orders.
The southerncity of Basra saw a parallel protest at the gates of the South RefineriesCompany, where workers affiliated with the FCC project blocked all access roadssince early morning. The closure prevented employees from entering thefacility, stranded outgoing shift workers, caused a vehicle backlog, andprompted a heavy security deployment.
In theKurdistan Region, unappointed doctors warned Monday of escalating civil actionafter a ten-day deadline they issued to the regional government expired withouta response. The ultimatum had been in effect since April 19.
"Theconcerned authorities provided no response within the specified ten-daydeadline, despite graduates' demands for a clear appointment plan," DastanBisharat, a representative of the doctors, told Shafaq News. He said more thanten 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 regionalgovernment expense —on equal terms with the 2024 cohort— pending a permanentsolution, alongside a clear timetable and defined mechanisms for resolving thehealth sector's employment crisis.
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