Follow Mar. 14, 2021 Ever since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic, on March 11, 2020, Gulf states have openly favored protecting their own citizens, a tiny minority of their populations, over millions of migrant workers, treating them as a disposable workforce entitled to second-class rights only. Nowhere is that more visible than in Kuwait. A year into the Covid-19 pandemic, Kuwaiti citizens are jumping the queue to get jabbed before migrant workers, who account for about two-thirds of the 4.5 million-strong population. Kuwait is vaccinating its citizens at six times the rate of migrant workers, despite foreigners living and working in the oil-rich Gulf state accounting for more than half of those registered for vaccination.