Some time ago, The Standard Newspaper wrote about a problem with some recruitment companies are charging a hefty fee from the applicants, even though the application is supposed to be free. We are talking about the Spain-Gambia migrant work agreement.
The Minister of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment Baboucar Joof, has said companies licensed to recruit applicants for the Spain-Gambia migrant work agreement are not supposed to charge the applicants any fees, other than “a flat administration and registration” fees to be determined by his ministry.
There is an ongoing discussion how much these administrative and registration fees should be, but that wasn’t decided before the recruitment companies began their work. It is, as always, a matter of using the poor and ignorant people for someone else’s gain.
According to Minister Joof, what is important is for everyone to know that recruitment is supposed to be free. These are global standards and there is not supposed to be any fee attached. No agency should charge anybody, any amount for registering to participate in the scheme. It should be free, totally free,” Minister Joof stressed.
Some recruitment agencies had even charged an applicant for D50,000, which is a sum hard for most people to gather.
It is a pity that the size of the registration wasn’t discussed and decided in advance, before any agency could open their business in The Gambia. Agencies like these must be checked, and kept in check, before they are able to start their business. We can’t rely on their goodwill, or their beautiful words, we must have rules and regulations that are protecting the common Gambian. Corruption is like an octopus with many arms, if you cut one off, another will grow in its place. We must instead make sure that it has no place to grow, The Gambia has had enough of corruption until this day.
I understand that it is tempting for a poor and unemployed person to take the chance to a better life. Who wouldn’t but at what cost? The thing is that the kind of work that is available is mostly for less-skilled workers. Be fair; how many of those don’t you have in The Gambia? People with low, or no level of education. People with some skills they have taught through life, but not by training at any kind of institute. People who can hardly read or write, who speak the language of the streets, some kind of English mixed with most of the languages spoken in The Gambia. Going to Spain for work you need to speak Spanish. I am highly educated, but I don’t speak Spanish and therefore I couldn’t apply for a job there.
If you don’t speak the language of the country where you stay to work; how are you supposed to protect your rights? How will you get help if you become injured at work? Who will protect you and make sure that you get the right salary at the end of each month? You know no-one, and no-one cares about knowing you. You are just another poor African coming to Europe for work, one in a crowd. How will you know that you will not disappear? I am sorry if I sound very harsh, but I care about you and I don’t want you to suffer in vain.
According to the ILO, International Labour Organization, migrant workers can be at high risk of exposure to workplace hazards and face additional work-related risk factors and unfavourable social determinants of health including employment and wage discrimination, poor working and living conditions, lack of access to social protection and language and culture barriers. These work-related risks can result in higher incidence of occupational injuries and work-related diseases among migrant workers, compared with non-migrant workers.
International Labour Standards provide the protection to all workers, irrespective of migrant status, from sickness, disease and injury arising from their employment. There are laws that are protecting migrant workers, but their cases are seldom spoken about in the open. The living and working conditions of migrant workers are not transparent until someone is looking into it. This ”someone” must have the correct knowledge about international rules and the guts to put pressure on employers. It is not an easy task and requires thick skin.
According to the official estimates of the United Nations, the WHO/ILO Joint Estimate of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury, almost 2 million people die each year due to exposure to occupational risk factors. Globally, more than 2.78 million people die annually as a result of workplace-related accidents or diseases, corresponding to one death every fifteen seconds. There are an additional 374 million non-fatal work-related injuries annually. It is estimated that the economic burden of occupational-related injury and death is nearly four per cent of the global gross domestic product each year.
The human cost of this adversity is enormous. In common-law jurisdictions, employers have the common law duty (also called duty of care) to take reasonable care of the safety of their employees. Statute law may, in addition, impose other general duties, introduce specific duties, and create government bodies with powers to regulate occupational safety issues. Details of this vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Prevention of workplace incidents and occupational diseases is addressed through the implementation of occupational safety and health programs at company level.
Someone’s misfortune could be someone else’s fortune, an ancient truth that will never change. The misfortune of being born in The Gambia, to a poor family and with no or low chances of a good fortune can be a source of income of someone else. This someone who doesn’t care about you as a person, only what he or she can gain from you. You have enough of this kind of people in your own country, but there at least you speak the language and have your family and friends around you. If you are willing to study and to work hard, you might be able to change your misfortune. The fortune lies in your own hands, but you must trust yourself. Follow your own path, dance to the best of your own drum. Don’t go anywhere where the only beating you hear is the one on your own skin. You are worth so much more!
