MOC clarifies the controls for tourists entering Iraq 

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities has set, today, Saturday, the controls for tourists entering Iraq, while clarifying the authority responsible for foreign labor and giving them approvals. 

A spokesman for the Ministry of Culture, Ahmed Al-Olaywi, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “There is a law regarding workers coming from outside Iraq, so a tourist cannot work in Iraq if he comes under the title that he is a tourist, because he enters through approval for visit or tourism, and is defined by controls.” With instructions and for several days and with a group , that is, he moves within a specific plan and after that he leaves the country, so there is nothing in the law or in the instructions that allows tourists to come to the country and stay for work. 

He added, "The work permit is required to take place before the person arrives in the country. As for the tourist, after his arrival in Iraq, he is not allowed to issue a work permit because he entered with a tourist visa.". 

He pointed out that "the manpower inside Iraq is of multiple nationalities, and this labor originally comes under the title that it is labor, and special licenses are issued to it by the concerned authorities, and then it comes to Iraq.". 

He explained that "the Tourism Authority is part of the Ministry of Culture, and it is concerned with tourism affairs in Iraq, at the level of planning for the tourism aspect, supervision, implementation and cooperation with a group of tourism companies to supervise the work of hotels through supervision and inspection of restaurants, so the authority is not a party to the issue of bringing in workers, follow up their numbers, or obtain approval for them.

And he added, "The issue of obtaining labor permits from outside the country is linked specifically to the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Interior and the security authorities."