The National Assembly’s Committee on Diaspora Affairs and Migrant Workers has called on the State Departments responsible for facilitating migrating workers to find ways of working with recruiting agencies to streamline the management of migrant workers and enhance their welfare abroad.
The committee chaired by Taita Taveta woman representative Lydia Mizighi made the call during a roundtable engagement with officials from the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services, State Department for Diaspora Affairs, Kenya Association of Private Employment Agencies (KAPEA) and representatives from the Association of Skilled Migrant Agencies of Kenya (ASMAK).
Mizighi argued that in the wake of rising unemployment in the country, the committee is keen to ease the facilitation of migrant workers with requisite documents for travel and work placements abroad.
She underscored the need for such engagements, in helping sort out the challenges affecting all stakeholders in the migratory worker’s sector.
“It is expected that Kenyans and more particularly those in the diaspora will benefit from such engagements as this one,” said Mizighi.
“Indeed, it is only through continued strategic partnerships among the arms of government, and in the spirit of inter-governmental relations guided by the principles of coordination, consultation, and cooperation that we shall be able to deliver on our mandates collectively,” she added.
KAPEA secretary general Virginia Njoki told the committee that the requirements for licensing of recruitment agencies and the exorbitant charges for the license itself had proven difficult for a number of them.
“The ministry’s stringent requirements and high cost of the one-year license is too high to keep us in business. A number of my members have closed shop in Kenya and are now operating in neighbouring countries like Burundi where conditions are favourable,” Njoki said.
In response, the Principal Secretary for Labour and Skills Development, Geoffrey Kaituko said the ministry would soon be submitting the Labour Migration Management Bill for consideration by Parliament.
He informed the lawmakers that the proposed law seeks to not only mainstream migration management, but also proposes the extension of licensing period for migrant recruitment agencies to two years from the current one year.
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