The mistreatment of Kenyan workers in Gulf countries could a thing of the past soon, according to the Ministry of labour.
Labour Cabinet Secretary Phyllis Kandie has said new rules and regulations have been adopted to ensure that recruitment agencies are vetted and licensed, migrants are trained and labour attachés in three Middle Eastern countries are in place to help Kenyan workers settle.
So far 20 members of the Association of Skilled Migrant Agencies of Kenya have been licensed as agents.
The ministry will publish their names to allow Kenyans to choose reliable and accredited agents when going to the Middle East for jobs.
The new changes, which take effect in a few weeks, will mean the lifting of the ban on domestic workers travelling to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Currently, only those going for professional positions are permitted to go.
Ms Kandie said she hopes the new measures will reduce cases of mistreatment of workers, saying they will be better skilled, while the agents responsible for sending them there will be in a position to bring them back should the conditions be too difficult for them.
This is expected to bring to an end the horror stories about young Kenyans working in the Gulf countries.
Source link-nation.co.ke
Dear Ms. Kandie,
I am sorry to ask if you yourself would have sent one if your relatives to these places to become the workers for the Middle Eastern countries that believe they are ‘superiors’. Why don’t you focus on creating jobs in Kenya for Kenyan young persons and do away with the need for ‘mi-grunt’ workers. They live in despicable conditions (one of our relatives went there and said even as a man this is no kind of place or condition to live in–no matter how much money the Kenyan government is getting to promote and send Kenyans to do the work for Middle Easterners who cannot or will not do work for themselves because of their $$$ and superioristic attitudes, which have nothing to do with concern for humane treatment of Kenyans. You would not want one of your relatives to live in these situations–especially females–and even men have a bad time there–even and especially those who have been well-educated since they are treated like mere property of these people who think they are better than everyone. Please protect Kenyan youth by creating jobs for them at home, not in foreign lands that could care less about Africans. I write with the greatest respect for your position and work, but also with the greatest urgency for the health, well-being, and dignity of Kenyan youth. Those who visit Dubai see luxury and wealth squandered on those who care little for Africans, who live in squalid conditions because those who built the most expensive residences on earth cannot provide more than a closet for Africans to live in and it doesn’t matter what treaties and conventions they sign because what are these to them since international humanitarian laws–what are these? They are giving Kenyan govt. $$$ evidentally to keep up the PR on their behalf so they won’t loose their mi-grunt laborers.
Don’t sell Kenyan youth out to M-Es for $$$.
What does Kenya making a deal (what did Kenya get for the deal>) have to do with protecting Kenyans from labor abuses in the Middle East? Basically, nothing. Kenya Govt. = 1, Middle East Govts and people = 1, Kenyan Wananchi = 0. Basically you are selling Wananchi and their children to work for those who will continue to do as they please! They don’t see Kenyans or AFricans or anyone else as people like themselves. They see Africans as the ones who do the work with very little pay, very bad living conditions, and most of the time no way to get home.
Take for instance, the poor Kenyan lady who gave birth in February to a son and he is being held for ransom in a U.A.E. hospital right now for more than 3 million KSH. She can’t get her newborn out of the hospital. She said she was on her way back to Kenya to have her baby (she had a ticket according to the story in The Star today and the had to have an emergency delivery. So, now the baby boy is being held like a hostage in the hospital there. Has the Kenyan Govt. done anything or even checked this situ out? Are they protecting Wananchi who get in desperate situations in U.A.E. or other Middle East countries when they are mistreated? I really wonder since this happened just recently and nothing has been done yet. The Dubai Consulate needs to go over to the hospital in U.A.E. and check this story out and find out how he can help this poor Kenyan mother, whose husband evidently works over there. This is how they treat Kenyans. He will be working for the rest of his life and the baby will grow up in the hospital at this rate. What heartless people! They do not treat Kenyans like people though. So, why are you making deals with people who do these things to your own citizens? Why? You are elected or selected to serve the people. They should you and the other dealmakers to account if Kenyans are treated like this. Do you think these Middle Easterners care anything about Kenyans other than as cheap laborers who they don’t even pay half the time and make sleep in squalid conditions and take away their passports so they can’t return home?