Israel speaks on labour import deal

Israeli Ambassador Michael Lotem says the labour export deal between Malawi and his country is a win-win situation which Malawians ought to celebrate.

In an interview from his base in Nairobi, Kenya focusing on the Israeli side, he said the labour export deal is between Malawians and some Israeli firms through their respective governments.

Lotem said exportation of labour to Israel has been under diplomatic discussions for some time, but this time around the need is huge and urgent; hence, the current recruitment process.

He said: “It is a win-win situation for both countries. Malawians will be earning $1 500 a month and on top of this they will gain knowledge. I think the biggest incentive is the knowledge. Money comes and money goes but knowledge stays.

“Of course, that is on the Malawi side. On our side, we need this labour after 350 000 Israelis were recruited in the military and left a gap in some sectors. It is a win-win situation and it is a pity that there are a lot of political connotations on this in Malawi.”

The envoy, however, admitted security concerns in Israel, but assured that his government has employed every effort to protect people from attacks including the Malawian labour force.

Said Lotem: “They are not going to Gaza. They will work in Israel. They will not be less secure than any other Israeli. We will take care of them as much as we are taking care of Israelis.  Of course, we are cautious that we do not have to allow people to certain areas that are targeted by Hamas especially the borders.”

He said the call for labours has been extended to a number of countries in Africa and Malawi “impressively responded to the call as soon as possible”.

The ambassador said after the first group of 221, a few more cohorts are expected to leave for Israel, but could not state the actual figure saying he had not received an update at the time of our interview yesterday.

Efforts to engage Ministry of Labour proved futile as the ministry officials were yet to respond to our questionnaire.

But in a telephone interview, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola Banda said this deal falls within the government plan to boost the economy.

He said: “All these have opened foreign currency denominated accounts and what this means is that they will get a small percentage of their pay for use in Israel but the rest will be deposited into their accounts here.

“This is their money, but in our case we will have gained the forex. They will access the kwacha and not the dollar. This is where we envisage to raise $180 million a year,” he said.

The minister commended FDH Bank for making it easy for the team to open the accounts.