By Tabora Bojang
Trade and Employment, Minister Baboucarr Joof, has told lawmakers yesterday that the government has licensed 4 private recruitment agencies to work on recruiting Gambians to work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as “skilled and domestic workers.”
Minister Joof tabled a motion before lawmakers to ratify a bilateral labour agreement between The Gambia and Saudi Arabia.
The agreement aims to recruit domestic workers and other skilled workers from The Gambia to “legally work in Saudi under proper working conditions.”
According to him, the recruitment processes for selection are outsourced to registered private recruitment agencies who will supply them to Saudi Arabia with the processes to be overseen by the Gambia Department of Labour.
“The agencies will do that recruitment and identify people based on the requirements of the destination country [Saudi] and our observations and then we will confirm who will be involved in this. There will be a clear disclosure on the terms and conditions before any departures. They [selected Gambians] will be given the terms of the contract. We have the domestic workers agreement and skilled workers agreement. And all of the two agreements will require the person to receive the contract here [in Gambia] before they go to Saudi including how much they will be paid. Each one of them will be entitled to a holiday after 11 months. They can choose to spend the holiday in Saudi or come to Gambia. Also, their passports will be available with them. They will be given their mobile phones; they will use it to communicate with our technical team and the Gambian embassy,” Minister Joof said in response to concerns raised by lawmakers.
Several NAMs charged that countries in the Gulf are known for maltreating and abusing the rights of migrant workers, especially women and asked for clarity to ensure Gambians who will be travelling under this agreement are not subjected to any form of maltreatment.
The Minister said there are “safeguards” embedded in the agreement to protect them from what he called issues “being heard over the radios and TVs about the way migrants are treated” in those countries.
“So, this agreement is to mitigate those challenges and ensure those going are not subjected to those turbulence. This is an international agreement and both Gambia and Saudi are members of the International Labour Organization and are all signatories to its conventions, and we are referring to all the domestic laws here and in Saudi about employment and labour to ensure there is decency in work, respect for human rights and dignity of the workers is respected at all levels whether domestic or skilled work.”
Some NAMs also raised concerns about the differences in laws between The Gambia and Saudi who operate under the Sharia law.
Minister Joof said there will be a pre-departure orientation to educate all recruited persons on what obtains in Saudi before leaving. “If they choose to go to Saudi, they should know that they are going to a country that is governed by sharia. If you know you cannot be in a country where you cannot steal and you want to come back with your two hands, don’t choose Saudi. Choose another country.”
Joof further informed lawmakers that the Saudi leadership is aiming to transform the country and needs skills jobs across the board particularly in construction.
He said at the time of his visit to Saudi, he found out that there were only 200 Gambians formally employed in Saudi out of a total of 13 million workers, adding that this formalization will help reduce that deficit and his Ministry is thinking of not only limiting it to skilled youths but also those who are in retirements like ex-teachers.
Minister Joof stated that his Ministry does not want to be conflicted as a player and a regulator which is why recruitment was outsourced to private agencies.
“The process will be supervised by the department of labour to ensure that what we have on the licenses for agencies obtain. We have already licensed 4 agencies to do Saudi. So, after today, the agencies should be able to start tomorrow and open applications for jobs based on the demand from Saudi.”
He said the government has gone into a similar agreement with UAE and Spain, revealing that Qatar has also shown interest to partner with the government to recruit Gambians to work in Doha.
“Each country has different requirements. The agencies do the recruitment, we do the supervision and regulation so that if they are going against the provisions of the labour law, the labour department will come in to rectify and correct them and the work of the technical committee is our fall back. When we monitor what the technical committee and the embassy is reporting to us, that committee will filter the information and look at the red flags, pick those red flags, invite our counterparts from Saudi and fix the problem. So, work relation disputes are normal. It is part of life and part of employment relations, that it is why it is important to have a course to ensure disputes are addressed whenever they emerge. If it requires me to travel to Saudi, I will go, if it has to be escalated to the presidency level, we will take it there.”
The agreement was subsequently ratified by the Assembly.
