State asked to close foreign job bureaus

By FELIX OLICK

The Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) has asked the Government to outlaw foreign recruitment and employment bureaus.

Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli said the Government should take the move to avert what he termed as the risk of many Kenyans ending up in slavery and servitude abroad.

In a statement to newsrooms, he said that the bureaus should be closed until the Ministry of Labour and that of Foreign Affairs come up with a law to regulate their operations. "The high employment rate, particularly among the youth, has become a curse. Young people have become slaves in Arabia.

Cotu continues to receive complaints from Kenyans suffering abroad," noted Mr Atwoli. He said due to archaic labour laws that govern foreign recruitment agencies Cotu has failed to make meaningful progress.

Atwoli said that unscrupulous individuals running the agencies continue to entice Kenyans into taking up employment, yet they have already been paid the total salary the unsuspecting recruits expect. He regretted that despite alarming revelations by the media regarding such suffering, many Kenyan youth continue to troop to the Middle East for jobs.