Thousands of desperate jobless Kenyans are on a daily basis falling victims to rogue employment agencies fleecing them of millions of shillings in the pretext of getting them jobs abroad. Mostly targeted are people seeking both menial and professional jobs in the Middle East.

Several employment agencies have sprouted out, taking advantage of the unemployment crisis to con unsuspecting Kenyans hoping to get jobs outside the country to better their lives. The rogue employment agencies are in effect derailing the government’s plan on export labour in a bid to reduce joblessness.

Last week, the National Assembly Committee on Diaspora Affairs and Migrant Workers, while on a visit to Mombasa, came face to face with shocking revelations of how some agencies defraud Kenyans under the guise of overseas job recruitment.

Despite claiming to have facilitated the deployment of more than 600 Kenyans, two of the agencies visited by the committee lacked essential office documentation, raising serious concerns.

According to the committee, Al Hadhramy and Mahla and Attawakul recruitment agencies are reportedly involved in a con scheme where owners are said to have collected millions of shillings from hundreds of Kenyans and left them stranded.

Questions have also been raised over the culpability of the National Employment Authority (NEA) over the con game scheme that has continued to take place under its nose.

Besides fleecing Kenyans, reports and cases abound of how some agencies end up dumping people in countries where they can hardly communicate in the local language, with no place to live and without money.

Scores of Kenyans have also ended up in the hands of cruel employers who torture and enslave them. Quite a number have returned home in coffins.

Promises by the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs that it is working closely with its Labour counterpart to weed out rogue employment agencies have unfortunately remained on paper.

Though the government earns about Sh309 billion in remittances every year from export of labour, the sector should not be left in the hands of unscrupulous people to take advantage of the desperation of jobless people.

The government through NEA, the police and other investigative agencies must crack the whip on the crooked recruitment agencies. People Daily