The Departmental Committee on Labour and Social Welfare chaired by Mwea Constituency Member of Parliament Hon Josephat Kabinga Wachira today held a meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of Immigration, and the Attorney General’s Office to deliberate of the recurrent cases of mistreatment of Kenyan Migrant Workers in the Middle East.
In his submission to the Committee, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Macharia Kamau suggested that Kenya should halt migration of Kenyans to the affected countries, until effective laws and regulations of the same are put in place to guide the process.
Implementation of this suggestion to stop migration, is however likely to be challenging due to the lack of any guiding Laws in place.
He told the Kabinga-led committee that there is already a proposed ‘Labour Migration Bill’ which if passed into law, will make the process manageable as it seeks to address the perennial problem of abuse and mistreatment of Kenyan Migrant workers in the Middle East.
According to the Director of Immigration Alexander Muteshi, the National Assembly, during Budgeting; needs to consider the Ministry’s proposal to allocate funds to establish Safe Houses in the affected Countries, as well as employ more Labour Relations Officials to be stationed in the said regions, to help address the matter in the long-term.
