Nairobi — The nominee for Labour and Social protection Florence Bore has promised to crackdown on National Employment Authority that registers agencies which import migrant workers.
If approved, Bore told Members of Parliament during her vetting for the cabinet slot that there could be gaps in the vetting and approval of close to 500 agencies in the country.
Bore mentioned the lack of efficiency in the approval of the agencies has led to the current crisis in relation to importing workers to Saudi Arabia.
"There could be gaps in within those agencies and it's the multi-sectoral committee that does the vetting of these agencies. That committee needs to be streamlined to be able to see what these agencies are doing," she stated.
The Labour nominee has pledged to streamline the welfare of migrant workers. Bore told MPs during her vetting that she will get to the bottom of the issue by ensuring no migrant worker from the country dies during their stay in the Arab country.
Domestic workers in Saudi Arabia are often victims of severe abuses by their employers. The reported cases range from psychological to physical torture, with some leading to death.
"I want to empathize with the migrant workers that have gone to the Middle East and have been oppressed because of their stay there. No parent sends a child to the Gulf to expect them to come in a coffin," she said.
The Labour nominee assured that they will employ labor attaché who will be deployed in various cities in Saudi Arabia to directly oversee the welfare of the migrant workers in the Middle East country.
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Bore also outlined that she will put in place a welfare fund for migrant workers alongside a sustainable medical cover in cases they fall ill in the line of duty.
"It looks like when they have health issues they aren't treated well and they suffer and by the time they are back they would have undergone a lot of challenges," she stated.
Saudi Arabia has a modern slavery prevalence rank index of 138 out of 167 countries as per the Global Slavery Index.
The index also estimates that 61,000 people live in modern slavery and that 46 out of every 100 people are vulnerable to modern slavery.
Confronted by unemployment rates that are among the highest in the world as per the UN's International Labour Organization (ILO), hundreds of vulnerable women continue to take, more often than not, a doomed voyage to the Gulf.
The parliamentary committee on labour and social welfare indicate the number of Kenyans working in Saudi Arabia has risen from 55,000 in 2019 to 97,000. The number of deaths and distress incidences has also increased.
In 2019, three deaths were reported to the Kenya embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, rising to 48 deaths in 2020 and, as of September 2021, 41 deaths.
Thus far in 2021, three deaths have been reported in Qatar, one in the United Arab Emirates, two in Kuwait, nine in Oman and two in Bahrain.
