The Ethiopian government is planning to utilize overseas employment opportunities as part of its job creation schemes. Recently, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA) has discussed with the delegation of UAE to sign a bilateral agreement and launch officially the oversea employment services.
Dr. Ergoge Tesfaye, Minister at MOLSA said that through its five-year Growth and Transformation Plans, the Ethiopian government is working to ensure inclusive growth and development. The major goal of the government’s policies is the reduction of poverty by creating job opportunities for citizens.
In this regard, the government is also planning to exploit the advantage of regular migration to foreign countries. For long, young Ethiopians have been illegally migrating to foreign countries in search of job opportunities putting their lives in danger. It is to prevent this causality that the Ethiopian government enacted oversea employment proclamation number 923/2016 to protect the dignity and safety of Ethiopian workers overseas.
So far, significant changes have been made to control and manage the labor migration process. Accordingly, it was managed to make sure that there would not be any deployment of Ethiopian workers in other countries in the absence of a bilateral agreement with the recipient countries, she noted.
She said the meeting with the delegate of UAE was a continuation of the signed agreement between the two countries and result of the meeting held at Geneva with NacirbinTany, the Minister of Human Resource and Emiratization for the smooth implementation of the MOU to put it into effect and for the better result as well.
On the behalf of the Ethiopian government, the Minster recognized and appreciated the government of UAE for incorporating 30 thousand illegal migrants in the legal system and the UAE delegations for their willingness to have the right dialogue to launch the oversea employment.
On his part, Abidela Alimami Director at Nation Ministry of Human Resource and Emiratizations of United Arab Emirate said UAE has a strong position in combating human trafficking and has established strong law especially regarding domestic workers which put strict criteria.
UAEs 36 requirement agencies went through a very challenging screening to assure the quality and services the domestic workers provide.
“And we will work with Ethiopian government to assure that we don’t have any illegal migration or human trafficking practices. And we need private sectors to work with us to protect the legal work system,” he noted.
At the occasion, Birhanu Abera Director of Oversea Employment at MOLSA presented on the trend of migration in Ethiopia. He stated that a large number of Ethiopians have been illegally entering the UAE and other Gulf Cooperation Council countries with various visas and change their status without passing through the legal channels.
This will lead them to lose various benefits because of the lack of awareness regarding the respective countries’ minimum wage and health situation. That is why the government of Ethiopia banned overseas employment for some time and took time to formulate the proclamation. The government since then has signed bilateral agreement and MOU with four countries such as United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan.
The Ethiopian Herald September 5, 2019
BY ESSEYE MENGISTE
