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With unemployment pushing many Kenyans to seek greener pastures outside the country, Labour Cabinet Secretary Dr Alfred Mutua has outlined ways that Kenyans can identify fake jobs that could see them lose money or end up trapped in modern-day slavery outside the country or worse.
Speaking in an interview with Citizen TV, amid a surge in fake job scams that have left scores of Kenyans stranded in foreign lands and forced to engage in criminal activities such as prostitution and online fraud, Mutua noted that Kenyans seeking jobs have an equally big role to play.
Important detail that a genuine overseas job offer must have
The CS explained that the absence of a job offer should be a big red flag as the same must be availed prior to leaving the country.
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The offer must be attested by the Ministry of labor, adding another layer of checks that prospective job seekers should be aware of.
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Usually, before you leave the country, there is a job offer that has to be attested by the Ministry of Labour, so if someone has sent you a job offer, ask them if they can see the demand or the offer that was given to you to recruit us, attested by the Kenyan embassy?
Mouth-watering deals
He also cautioned Kenyans to beware of jobs whose pay is too good to be true, noting that this is a common strategy used by criminal enterprises and rogue recruitment agencies to lure people, only to end up trapped in modern-day slavery, losing money, or leaving the country only to realise that what was promised is far from the reality.
If the money is too good to be true, then it is (a scam)
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The paperwork & visa
Another way to know a fake job is if the recruiter or agency downplays the importance of a work visa, insisting that a travel visa suffices with the promise that the same would be adjusted.
The CS emphasis that legitimate agencies now how governments work and before leaving Kenya, one must get a temporary work visa or a full work visa.
Number three, if these people tell you, don’t worry; you don’t need a work visa. We will give you a cover of visa ukifika hapo utabadilisha, then those are fake, because real agencies and the way the government works are that before you leave Kenya, you get a temporary work visa or a full work visa. Not a travel visa. If anyone is giving you a tourism visa, that person wants you to go into slavery. That person is using you
Mutua's take on making payment to recruitment agencies for jobs overseas
He further cautioned that while recruitment agencies charge reasonable amounts for their services, Kenyans should trust their gut and instinct when asked to pay huge sums of money.
Scammers have flooded the foreign jobs field, taking advantage of the dire unemployment situation in the country to fleece unsuspecting Kenyans.
The government embarked on an aggressive labour export programme with countries in Asia and Europe being among the destinations for skilled Kenyans unable to get opportunities home or underemployed.
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The program has so far seen thousands of Kenyans secure decent jobs outside the country. Critics hold that the focus should be on providing opportunities for Kenyans at home to contribute to the country’s development and not exporting them when some sectors have acute shortage.
Case in point is in health where doctors and nurses employed in public facilities is nowhere close to the ratio recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).