Saeed Shereef (second left) addressing the press as members of GHAPEA look on
The Ghana Association of Private Employment Agencies (GHAPEA) has appealed to government to lift the ban on recruitment of migrant labour to Gulf countries.
The ban imposed by government in May 2017 prevents all 54 members of GHAPEA from recruiting and migrating Ghanaian skilled and unskilled labourers to the Arab world.
The suspension was in response to alleged abuse of some Ghanaian migrant workers by the employers in some Gulf countries like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, among others.
But addressing the media at a press conference in Accra on Monday, December 18, Chairman of GHAPEA, Alhaji Saeed Shereef, said the ban was negatively affecting players in the sector, who are operating in accordance with the employment laws of Ghana.
According to him, members of the Association – registered in 2015 – are duly licensed by the Ghana Labor Department to transport skilled and unskilled Ghanaian labourers abroad.
“The ban has given rise to illegal migration of Ghanaians through some illegal operators, while members of the Association, who are supposed to be at the forefront of facilitating the export of Ghanaian labourers abroad are out of job, he indicated.
“The illegal agents cannot be bothered, because they are under the table. They do not have any records, they pay no taxes and they just carry on,” he bemoaned.
He added that “The officially registered recruitment agencies are bearing the brunt of the suspension – because officially all our operators are now on hold.”
The chairman indicated that “almost all our members have literally shut down their offices, while illegal agencies are having a field day.”
“Indeed, life is such that when the front door is locked up, people try to enter the building through the windows. Majority of the prospective emigrants have resorted to illegal agencies, pay huge amounts of money and risk everything into wilderness.
“Statistics show that all the returnees from the Libya slave camps were sent to Libya by illegal agents four months ago which is within the period of the suspension.
“The only way to solve the problem is to lift the suspension and for government to insist that all labour emigrants must pass through licensed agents,” he underscored.
He added that “we hope the government would listen to our plea to enable us go back to work to reactivate the legal channel of migration and for us to help the government shutdown the illegal channel, and to provide decent jobs for our youth through legal migration in a safe and comfortable manner.”
By Melvin Tarlue