Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
Elias Meseret
24 December 2007
Addis Ababa — The Ethiopian Private Employer Agencies Association (EPEAA) made an agreement with the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation (EIC) last week on December 20, 2007 to insure tens of thousands of people, mostly women, sent to the Middle East to work as domestic servants, labourers and other unskilled employees.
The insurance policy signed requires the EPEAA's member employment agencies to pay a premium of 50 dollars every two years and 45 days to the EIC for each of the workers they send. Upon the death of an insured worker, EIC will pay 67,000 Br to the families of employees that die in the Middle East. Furthermore, workers who commit suicide will also be included in the insurance policy.
"We believe that persons who commit suicide in a work place, especially in the Middle East region, should be included in the insurance policy because trends show that they do so for reasons related to the job they are engaged in," Yosef Sahleselassie, general manager of the Association, told Fortune. Based on the agreement, workers who acquire mental disorders will also get one-third of the payment made to families of the deceased.
The Association, which has 43 member agencies that send employees to other countries, was founded three years ago by private employment agencies with the objective of providing a safe working environment to workers that travel abroad and to discourage workers from taking hazardous, illicit journeys. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, more than 1,400 migrants, mostly from Somalia and Ethiopa, have drawned trying to cross the Gulf of Aden to Yemen on makeshift boats.
This recent move by the Association came after the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs issued a directive four months ago which obliges migrant workers who travel abroad beginning from October, 2007 to have insurance coverage.
Gebremedhin Abraha, President of the Association, told Fortune that the agencies that operate under the Association have welcomed the recent directive issued by the Ministry.
"Considering the amount of problem that the workers are facing these days, it is of paramount importance to provide them an insurance cover," said Gebremedhin.
According to the Association, more than 45,000 people are sent abroad annually through the 43 agencies to countries like Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.
Delegates of Saudi employer agencies, who visited Ethiopia a month ago, have promised that they would cover the premium costs for the workers to the oil rich nation. The delegates have vowed to take around 60,000 workers in the coming year.
Currently, around 75 employment agencies are operating in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, the number of people who migrate without proper documents far exceeds the number of people who use the agencies.
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