The suspension of recruitment of Ghanaian workers to the Gulf countries was amply disseminated in the media. The decision of the authorities was intended to save citizens of this country from the travails that await them in these Arab countries.
The agents devised a means of beating the system by traveling to Togo with the workers so that they can continue from the neighbouring country to the Arab countries in the Gulf.
Many who used this route eventually found their way to the countries they think are all milk and honey.
Now five hundred of them are stranded in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), left to their fate – their agents having abandoned them. That is what happens to those who develop deaf ears to admonitions. Unfortunately, the Ghanaian taxpayer is going to foot the bill for their return journey to Ghana.
The political and humanitarian implication of denying the stranded audience and an eventual return journey using the public purse are too obvious to be ignored.
When the subject is thrown to Ghanaians at home, many are they who would not side with government footing the bill for the deportation mission. We are unable to condemn such a position but the reality is that no government, regardless of the circumstances leading to the situation, can be indifferent to the plight of its citizens in a foreign land.
For us, therefore, it is in order that government works out a means of having the stranded compatriots returned.
When that is done, however, there should be measures to ensure that the suspension directives are carried out to the letter – those flouting them punished severely.
Employment agencies who are masters at flouting regulations through the application of detours should be made to bear the cost of such repatriations and the possibility of blacklisting their companies.
Unless this is done, we would continue to experience a recurrence of this episode not forgetting its negative implication on our national image and public kitty. Ghanaians should be compelled to respect regulations and directives to obviate such negative occurrences.
The deterring effect of punishing recruitment agents, especially, blacklisting them with deportees also suffering an aspect of the punishment, will go a long way in saving innocent Ghanaians from avoidable inconveniences and financial loss to the state.
Such employment agencies should be scrutinized to establish their integrity – a quality which should determine their eligibility or otherwise to operate.
A recruitment agency which lacks integrity is more obsessed with fleecing money from gullible persons eager to go to the El Dorado which has been promised them.
When they land in the fantasy world after borrowing monies to facilitate the trip, they are soon disappointed.
Sufficient education should be given to the youth, especially the females, about the horrible things which await them at the hands of Arabs who still see Africans as slaves worth exploiting.