Atwoli seeks ban on gulf employment agencies

Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli has castigated the government for neglecting the plight of Kenyans working in gulf countries. He criticised the ministries of Labour and Foreign Affairs for ignoring the cries of Kenyans working in Arabian countries, following the numerous deaths of girls abroad. Atwoli who was addressing COTU stakeholders in Nairobi on Thursday, April 21, 2022, stated that the government had neglected the rights of its citizens working in foreign countries. He noted that the government had ignored the plight of families who have lost their loved ones in foreign countries under mysterious circumstances.

“I think the Kenyan government is not sensitive to the plight of the Kenyans who are in the Arabian world, Qatar, Bahrain, and others. Our government is not sensitive, I have appealed time and again to stop the menace of taking our young girls to the Gulf,” he said. [caption id="attachment_10569" align="alignnone" width="1620"] File image of COTU boss Francis Atwoli.[Photo: Courtesy][/caption]

“Every morning the Qatar Airlines and others from the Gulf are dropping dead bodies at the JKIA. Can't we be sensitive and come out with a law that can protect our young people?” Atwoli posed. Kenyans working in the Gulf nations of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain have over the years decried poor working conditions and being mistreated by their employers. Several workers have returned home in caskets, leaving their families in agony and with no hope of ever getting justice.

“Sometimes I have heard the Ministry of Labour talking proudly that we have managed to take more than 500/600 people, we have given them jobs. What type of jobs? There are no talks of decent jobs, are these decent jobs where people are coming back in coffins?” Posed Atwoli.

“You can be a poor but proud person in your country, it is not a question of money or cheating people that we are providing jobs.”

Atwoli accused the Ministry of Labour of lack of accountability, misstating facts, and allegedly shielding the truth from President Uhuru Kenyatta.

“Everybody is writing to him; I don’t know what the minister reports during the Cabinet meetings on Thursday to the President. Don’t they tell him that we are losing Kenyans outside there, we have no proper linkage, that we are playing and practising indirect slavery when we are taking our young girls to Saudi and other places?” Atwoli posed.

“Funny enough I learned that senior officers in the Ministry of Labour are the people owning these employment agencies, how do they stop it? They are people practising direct slavery, doing the funny type of things and protected by the same government.” The COTU boss called for a ban on employment agencies, stating that the government should explore other avenues that don't risk the lives of its citizens.

He suggested that through social partnerships, the State should initiate laws to govern workers in foreign countries and through governmental bodies by establishing organs to oversee the rights of citizens internationally by employers.

“We must stop the labour agencies if we want to provide jobs to our people, we should do it from government to government so that we can look into the contracts and see whether they are in conformity with the requirement of international labor standards,” he stated.