Minister of Labour Peter Dimba has said the recruitment of Malawians to work in Israel has reverted to private agencies to improve efficiency.
In response to our questionnaire yesterday following up on his Facebook post two days ago, Dimba stressed that the role of government is to ensure that due diligence is done in the recruitment process to guard against human trafficking and ensure better deals.
In the Facebook post, the minister expressed frustration with the bureaucracy in the government-led recruitment process in which only 29 workers, out of a target of 3000, were recruited for the Israel jobs.
The 3000 was a target set in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that Malawi and Israel governments signed last April to facilitate exportation of agricultural-focused labour to Israel.
Dimba said the decision was made after wide consultations with various stakeholders, including his predecessor, fellow Cabinet ministers, technocrats and recruiting agencies.
The minister said he also went through the MoU to arrive at this decision.
Said Dimba: “Since the G2G [Government-to-Government] MoU on [agricultural] labour export was signed, government has only gotten 29 job orders from Israel and the programme has been frustratingly slow.
“I have, therefore, come to a conclusion that government has no business in such business because of its busy-ness [bureaucracy] and, therefore, private agencies must be given the freedom and the support to spearhead the labour export not only to Israel, but also other countries like Dubai, Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries where the demand for labour is high.”
According to the minister, it does not matter who exports, adding that what is important is for the programme to benefit Malawians.
In an interview, one of the recruiting agencies, Workers of Arave Farmers (WAF) managing director Justice Kangulu, said the firm is ready to resume the Israel recruitments, adding they have identified opportunities in various sectors.
“As WAF, we partnered with the farmers making us one of the trusted farm labour [agents]. In addition to that, we also have agreements with other partners in different job sectors, that is, tourism, construction, even in skilled labour,” he said.
Kangulu said as a recruiting agency, they are in touch with workers they exported and will also orient new ones to stick to agreed terms.
“Most of the times it is difficult to know who will behave or not as these are equal opportunities and we don’t send and have never sent anyone because we know them. But what I can encourage them this time is to learn from their friends’ mistakes and behave accordingly to preserve our reputation as a country,” he said.
Before the G2G arrangement, private agencies were recruiting directly which led to over 1 000 Malawians securing work in Israeli agricultural farms between late 2023 and early 2024.
Addressing the press two weeks ago, immediate past minister of Labour Vitumbiko Mumba said Israeli farmers were reluctant to recruit Malawian workers, especially males, after half of them allegedly left designated farms for asylum and vending.
