Dubai
Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid, has disclosed that about 500 young Ghanaians have are stranded in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He said in Accra yesterday that those stranded are victims of recruitment agencies that have been advertising juicy jobs in the UAE.
He said the government was collaborating with the authorities in the UAE to repatriate them.
“As we speak 500 young Ghanaians have been left stranded in Dubai and do not know what to do,” he revealed.
The minister said that the security agencies were working hard to apprehend all those involved in the fake recruitment drives and noted that they are only interested in the exploitation of the desperate job seekers.
“The security agencies are tracking down these recruitment agencies as well as travel and tour companies which are doing this to these young people,” he said, adding, “These agencies manage to secure only tourism visas for these young people, which expires after three months.”
He added, “They charge them between GH¢8,000 and GH¢15,000 just to secure them these visas. And when they get there, they leave them to their fate.”
The minister reminded the public that the ban on the export of labour to the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the Middle East and the Gulf States is still in force, and that the government would continue to enforce the ban.
There have been several reported cases of abuse and maltreatment of Ghanaians who usually take up jobs as maids and nannies not only in the UAE, but also other countries such as Saudi Arabia and Libya.
Last year, about 800 Ghanaian migrants living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia illegally turned themselves in at Ghana’s mission there to be deported.
This followed a three-month amnesty granted illegal residents by the Saudi government to leave or be sanctioned.
The Ghana embassy in Saudi Arabia in May 2017 appealed to Ghanaians living there without residential and work permits to take advantage of a package by the embassy to return home.
Ghana’s mission at the time said over 500 people applied voluntarily to be repatriated.
This was because Saudi Arabia announced a 90-day amnesty for persons living in that country illegally and wished to return to their countries of origin, as part of the Kingdom’s “A Nation Without Illegal Expatriates” campaign.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has vowed to reverse the trend of illegal migration of Ghanaians by building a sound economy with opportunities for all.
In an address at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, the president had stated that it was inappropriate for any Ghanaian to go through life-threatening ordeal of an immigrant.