Thiruvananthapuram, March 24 (IANS): A delegation from Kerala will visit Kuwait to discuss about recruitment of Indian nurses, a minister said on Tuesday.

State Minister for Diaspora K.C. Joseph told IANS that he and Minister of Labour Shibhu Baby John held talks over this issue with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Tuesday.

"The Kuwait government has entrusted the job to recruit nurses on us. We will send a delegation of officials there next week to discuss it with the Indian embassy and the Kuwait government. We expect governments of other Middle-East countries to approach the Indian mission for the recruitment of nurses," said Joseph.

A directive from the ministry of overseas Indian affairs issued last week, entrusting the task of recruitment from April 30 to state-owned Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants and Roots-Norka, the agency that looks after the welfare of Kerala diaspora.

"In the meeting, it was decided to strengthen our Roots-Norka offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. After our team returns from Kuwait, we will come to know how many vacancies would be there. We expect other countries to follow what Kuwait has done," added Joseph.

John told IANS that around 20,000 nurses are able to find jobs abroad every year.

"We foresee an expense of around Rs.50,000 which nurses will have to bear as the cost of recruitment," said John.

Chandy informed ministers in the meeting that he got a letter from the external affairs ministry which requested to ensure no nurses be send to Libya and Iraq, said John.