NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 24 — The National Assembly Committee on Diaspora Affairs and Migrant Workers has called for the cancellation of licenses of recruiting agencies.
Speaking during an engagement with Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua, the Committee led by Haika Mizighi (Taita Taveta County Woman Rep) advised the Government to conduct a fresh registration of the agencies once new regulations have been put in place.
MPs in the House team told the CS it was time to fix the issue that has left many immigrant workers who ply their trade in the gulf countries distressed.
“Unless the current situation is ameliorated, Kenya would continue to lose thousands of undocumented Kenyan workers, some of whom are currently victims of human trafficking,” the Committee observed.
Mizighi led her colleagues in observing that the relevant ministries would need to carefully pick up a new vetting team besides fresh registration to give the process a clean start.
“We need to cancel all permits and develop new regulations for the recruitment of migrant workers. We consequently will need to get a new vetting team for these agencies,” she told the CS.
Protecting Diaspora workers
While underscoring that diaspora remittances are among Kenya’s most important sources of foreign exchange, the MPs asked the CS and his Labour counterpart Florence Bore to collaborate closely with the Committee to safeguard the welfare of the Diaspora.
The Committee has further urged the CS to consider sending Labour Attaches to countries with large numbers of Kenyan Migrant workers.
At the same time, the Committee has asked the Ministry to organize a forum where MPs can have a conversation with the employment agencies, the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, as well as from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.
On his part, Mutua told the Committee that his recent efforts of engaging with the governments, especially in the gulf countries had paid off, as there are now fewer cases of reportedly distressed Kenyans abroad.
He told the MPs that his ministry would propose to not only register all those contracted as migrant workers but to also issue a clearance certificate to them before they are allowed to leave the country.
“We are proposing that before a contracted migrant worker leaves the country, we issue them a clearance certificate. This way, we will have data on who has left, where they are based, and what they have been hired to do”, the CS noted.
