Kenya ban on domestic workers not to affect Oman
MUSCAT — The recent ban on new recruitment of Kenyan domestic help to Middle East countries will have least effect on the Sultanate of Oman as the number of such workers in the country is less than 10, and the rest are skilled workers employed in airport, hospitals, hotels and other key areas, according to the Kenyan Embassy sources in Muscat.
“Oman is not going to get affected by the new law as out of the approximately 500 Kenyan citizens in the Sultanate including families, barely 10 or less than that are employed at local as well as expatriates’ houses and the rest are occupying comparatively key positions in various sectors across the country,” Yabesh O Monari, Charge d’Affaires, Kenya Embassy in Muscat, said.
The government of Kenya on Friday has temporarily suspended recruitment and export of Kenyan domestic workers to Middle East countries with immediate effect on grounds of the mistreatment and increasing complaints of workplace harassment. In the wake of this, the Political and Diplomatic Secretariat in the Kenyan Foreign Affairs Ministry has urged all the recruiting agencies to sign labour agreements to ensure Kenyans taking up jobs are not mistreated or they are not short-changed for the contracts agreed upon.
The embassy official added that for the job of domestic help, Omanis preferred other African nationals along with Asians and Nairobi is least considered for them. “Most of the Omani nationals recruit Asians and Ethiopians and Kenya is not well considered to be a source for such workers, hence the new law will have more impact on other Gulf countries where majority domestic help community comprise Kenyans”.
Kenya is a country with a huge wealth of skilled manpower including IT professionals, doctors, engineers, nurses, so on and they are mostly employed in European countries, Americas, besides other African countries such as South Sudan, Botswana, and Rwanda. “In the larger interest, the decision is right to safeguard the interests of the domestic help employed across the Middle East, but it will impede the aspirations of thousands of blue collar workers who wish to take up the job of domestic help to earn a living”.
Source:main.omanobserver.om
