Israel trims jobs offer to 2500

Israel has limited to 2 500 the number of Malawians who can work in farms when a memorandum of understanding (MoU) is signed to facilitate recruitment resumption, it has emerged.

Under the new arrangement, the contract period for new Malawian workers has also been reduced from five to two years.

In an interview yesterday, Kenya-based Israeli Ambassador Michael Lotem justified this decision, saying the MoU should be understood as a pilot project and “therefore, only a limited number of jobs can be offered and for a limited time [two years in Israel] as the two governments work on the bilateral labour agreement”.

He said for the labour agreement to be concluded, it may take more than a year or two due to several processes, including the need for ratification.

“The MoU is an interim opportunity to still offer some opportunity as the agreement is being worked on and indeed, the MoU stipulates that the parties will begin negotiating the labour agreement,” said Lotem.

He also said the MoU is expected to be signed soon in Israel.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Nancy Tembo was yet to respond to our questionnaire by press time yesterday.

However, Ministry of Labour commissioner for labour Hlalerwayo Nyangulu briefly responded: “The ambassador [Lotem] has said it all”.

A source in the Malawi negotiating team confided in The Nation that Lilongwe is frustrated with the change of heart, especially coming after Israel dangled 100 000 jobs.

The source said Lilongwe has tried to negotiate for an increase in number considering that 2 900 Malawians were already recruited and awaiting the signing of the MoU.

During a meeting in Jerusalem earlier this year, Israeli Minister of Economy Nir Barakt told the Malawi delegation that it needed to think about exporting 100 000 workers across sectors.

In his budget statement presented to the National Assembly last month Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Simplex Chithyola Banda cited the labour export deal with Israel as one of the six signals that the country’s economy was recovering.