April 23, 2021
Mohamed M. Sesay
Following the lifting of the ban on Oversea employment on Wednesday the 21st of April 2021, the Minister of Labour and Social Security Alpha Timbo has officially informed journalists that 2000 legal labour migrants will leave the country in search of job opportunities abroad next week.
He was speaking at the Ministry of Information and Communications’ press conference, Minister Timbo said that legal labour migration has been in existence and will always remain to be in existence. He however said that, African continent always misunderstand the difference between regular regulated legal migration to that of the human trafficking.
“The issue of people moving from their countries to other countries is not a phenomenon that started today. Yesterday my sister made us know that even the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBHM) had to move from Mecca to Madina. Therefore, people often move to either pursue further studies or for other purposes abroad. I as a minister of labour, I issue work permit to aliens to come to Sierra Leone to work. So when once the system of labour migration is regulated, then there will be a whole lot of benefits for the migrants”, he said.
Minister Timbo added that they have arrived at three main agreements between the government of Sierra Leone and the state of Qatar; another agreement between the government of Sierra Leone and the Government of Kuwait, and an agreement between the government of Sierra Leone and the Government of Ghana.
He noted that the SOS Labour Migration in Ghana is well experienced in terms of legal labour migration issues. He said they will be making sure that Sierra Leone benefits from the Ghanaian experience in terms of structuring the country’s labour migration system by ensuring also that Sierra Leoneans legal migrants secure more jobs abroad.
He disclosed that the ministry is currently in consultation with local recruitment agencies who have been already issued with licenses so that they can undertake recruitment of Sierra Leonean workers both internally as well as externally.
He further intimated that he has reassessed the local recruitment agencies by visiting their various work places all aimed at evaluating their capacity in undertaking recruitment of Sierra Leoneans internally as well as externally.
Minister Timbo also asserted that the recruitment process of the legal labour migrants has to be digitalized because at the end of the day, Sierra Leoneans that will leave the shores of Freetown under this particular legal labour migration should be able to account for them in terms of their locations and health status.
Dwelling on the benefits in the legal labour migration process, the Chief Executive Officer of SOS Labour migration in Ghana who is also a member of the African Union Migration Advisory Committee Rev. Dr.Asie Kabuki Ocansey also intimated that, they at the African Union Migration Committee are tasked with the responsibility of advising African Government on issues relating to legal migration. She added that they have visited all the eight regional economic Communities and they found out that all the issues relating to migration are just the same.
She encouraged African government to take legal migration very seriously adding that, migration is directly related to development, and when migration is done illegally, the nation will not have development. She emphasized that when a nation had irregular migration then it will have an inimical effect on that nation.
“It breaks my heart as an African mother to see our sons and daughters washed ashore with plastic papers trying to cross the Mediterranean sea, it breaks my heart as a mother to see our daughters being abused overseas. Therefore, this is a certified programmes to help our African migrants respected when they seek job abroad”, she said.
Dr. Ocansey further noted that the programme has three sections which includes decent jobs such as cashiers, household workers, construction workers; and also a diasporia national service wherein government will engage the diasporeans to come to Sierra Loene to serve for a year or two which help develop skills and create job opportunities for other people.
He said the programme also caters for a Master’s Degree programme with a fifty thousand dollars loan program for young people to be able study and do a master’s degree in the United States of America, and also be able to earn eighty thousand dollars if they went on the STEM area which is specifically on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.