Malawian youths seeking job opportunities in Israel have written the government to reinstate recruitment agencies involved in hiring of people to work in the Jewish State.
The agents were involved in the labour export deal between the two countries prior to the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) earlier this year for a government to government arrangement.
A letter The Nation has seen dated September 10 2024 signed by the group’s secretary Grace Kalimbakatha and addressed to Ministry of Labour Principal Secretary (PS) Chikondano Mussa and copied to the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) said government has failed to administer the jobs deal.
Through the letter, the jobseekers have vented their frustration, saying they have waited in vain for eight months since government took over the programme from the agencies.
They demand that government should admit failure to run the programme. Further, they claim that they have seen a job order that government received from Israel on June 18 2024 but there is no progress.
It further asks government to explain revelations that it sent 671 names of jobseekers to Israel without the applicants knowing whether they passed the recruitment interviews.
Office of the Ombudsman public relations officer Mandy Pondani said following receipt of a complaint from the concerned Israel jobseekers, the office has undertaken an inquiry session and a quadripartite meeting held on August 28 2024.
She said: “The ministry was requested to provide relevant documents pertaining to the recruitment process and come with proposals on options through which the complainant’s concerns can be addressed”.
Pondani further explained that the jobseekers were also requested to submit further documents in relation to the matter and revealed that both parties have submitted the information and documents as requested.
She said the Ombudsman directed that government has up to 21 days from the date of the quadripartite meeting to effect work on the “way forward action points” on the matter and report back to the Ombudsman.
The ministry recently said recruitment of youths for the Israeli labour export deal is the domain of the Israeli Government and not the Malawi Government.
In a recent interview, Mussa dismissed claims that only 20 percent of the old applicants were recruited, saying the genuine figures were hovering around 80 percent.
She said: “There is an MoU which binds the whole process and is clear on recruitment agencies. They will not destroy the MoU because of self-interests.”
In April this year, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nancy Tembo and her Israeli counterpart Israel Katz signed the MoU in Tel Aviv on behalf of their respective governments.
