State moves to end exploitation of Kenyans seeking jobs abroad

The government has now registered all agencies recruiting people going abroad for work, Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore has said.

Bore said the aim of the process is to crack down all the unregistered agencies taking advantage of Kenyans seeking jobs in foreign countries.

She made the remarks after leading a tree planting exercise at Chepalungu forest in Bomet county on Tuesday.

The CS who was accompanied by Principal Secretary in the State Labour and Skills Development Shadrack Mwadime, staff from NSSF, and other county officials who planted about 8,000 trees with the aim of reaching the directives by President William Ruto of planting 15 billion trees by 2032.

“The recruiting agencies are now registered by our ministry to ensure the safety of applicants seeking job opportunities abroad,” Bore said.

The ministry has been cleaning up the mess within the system to ensure that only registered agencies are responsible for the recruiting process.

She confirmed that Kenyans going abroad for job opportunities can now be checked at the airport after the ministry set aside a labour desk to check the recruiting agencies used by the applicants.

“We now have a desk at the airport where the people going abroad are checked to ensure they use the right agency for recruitment," Bore said.

The CS said the government is vetting the recruitment agencies, and therefore, there are no private agencies working illegally.

“We are working together as a government in vetting to ensure that only the registered agencies are allowed to recruit," Bore said.

Over the years, some Kenyans seeking employment opportunities abroad have been negatively affected by various fake recruiting agencies promising jobs in the Middle East and Europe with no success.

The families of students aspiring for scholarships overseas have also been affected most, an example being the recent issue involving parents in Uasin Gishu county who struggled to finance European scholarships that never materialised.

The CS advised Kenyans seeking to go abroad to exercise caution and use the National Employment Authority, which has a list of all government-registered agencies.

The ministry has stepped up vetting of all the recruitment agencies who were allegedly involved in registering Kenyans seeking jobs abroad and has blacklisted more than 500 agencies from the more than 1,000 agencies initially.

Mwadime said the opportunities abroad are many and thus the government is aiming to get more opportunities for Kenyans to reduce unemployment in the country.

He added that the government is negotiating the signing of a Bilateral Labour Agreement by September this year with the aim of ensuring recruitment happend in an organised way.

“There's a number of opportunities abroad and recently like a week ago, we had a second round of negotiations and we expect to sign a bilateral labour agreement by September,” Mwadime said.

He encouraged Kenyans to consider ICT and agricultural sector courses for them to be employed abroad saying that this sectors have a large recruiting power.