May 10, 2021
By: Dadson A. Musa
At a press conference held at the Ministry of Information and Communication, Youyi building on the 29th April 2021, Alpha Osman Timbo, Labour Minister admitted that the unemployment rate in this country is high and therefore needs working on. The Minister tabled justifiable reasons for the lifting of the ban on overseas employment for Sierra Leoneans. Minister Timbo affirmed that ‘…migration is directly related to development.’ There is what economists refer to as ‘mobility of Labour’ which happens in every country be it poor or rich.
The Labor Minister assured that this time the government will ensure that brain drain is averted and decent work and decent pay will be guaranteed for Sierra Leoneans traveling in search of jobs abroad. An expert from Ghana who has Sierra Leonean origin is helping to map out what will be a labor migration in the best interest of the country. ‘It is a five-year economic plan to transform the lives of Sierra Leoneans’ and government will ensure slave labor is averted.
“There is this hunger for our youths who are able-bodied to travel out of this country for greener pastures but in the past they have been taken advantage of. So this New Direction government wants to make a safe labor migration to destinations abroad where Sierra Leoneans will reap much dividend from their toils in foreign countries,” says Minister Timbo.
Sierra Leone has not quite recovered from the effects of the war, Ebola and mudslide. In fact the corona outbreak has made it worst for our youths to get decent employment in this country even when government is doing all it can to make their lives better and keep them from deviancy. That is why government has lifted the ban on overseas employment.
This time it is going to be done in a manner that will ensure brain-gain instead of brain-drain. The system has been so worked out that when they go out and get these jobs remittances will be sent back home and after some years they come home to engage in investment activities in this country. Employment abroad will be backed up with legalized status so that human and economic rights are fully enjoyed.