Malawi Government has said hundreds of young people have applied for jobs in South Korea under the labour exporting programme as advertised by the Ministry of Labour two weeks ago.
Malawi’s Minister of Labour Eunice Makangala said in an interview on Wednesday that government has received over a thousand applications from across the nation, but only 320 are targeted for recruitment.
Makangala, who has just returned from South Korea where she travelled for discussions with the South Korean government on the recruitment programme, said the Malawian youths aged between 20 and 25 would work in agriculture and livestock sectors.
She said: “Out of the figure of 320, we will recruit 200 boys and 120 girls. Our intention is to build capacity for our youth by engaging them in productive agricultural activities throughout the period of four years and 10 months.”
Makangala said South Korea would be cabling to Malawi banks half of the youths’ monthly earnings into their accounts to be received upon arrival in Malawi.
Chancellor College labour expert Professor Wiseman Chijere Chirwa told Nation Online in March that there was a need of proper legal and policy frameworks to avoid exploitation. But Makangala has dismissed such fears.
