Parliament Thursday passed a resolution to review the Malawi- Israel labour agreement and recommended a new formal government-to-government deal that will ensure more benefits for workers, including new recruits from rural areas.
The House made the resolution following a vote on a report by a delegation that recently travelled to Israel presented in the House by Mwanza West representative Joyce Chitsulo.
Malawi is exporting thousands of youths to the Middle East country to tackle unemployment at home, but questions have recently emerged over recruitment and conditions in the agreements with private agencies responsible for the exercise.
The labour exports are also happening amid an ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
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Key among the findings by the delegation are shortfalls in the recruitment process and some of the conditions of the existing deal and that a revised one could see as many as 100,000 Malawian workers employed in Israel.
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“Considering that there is competition from other countries to export labour to Israel, it is imperative for the Government of Malawi to expedite the process of signing the government-to-government agreement that would guide formal operationalisation of labour export,” the report reads.
In it, the MPs further recommended that recruitment of workers should be done at constituency level by accredited agents, while the government through the Ministry of Labour should be solely responsible for regulating the labour export processes.
“Considering that there have been challenges in the identification and recruitment of labour at the initial stage of labour export, it is highly recommended that identification of workers should be done at constituency level with the involvement of both the member of Parliament for the area and the Area Development Committee.
“The contact point to trigger the identification process of workers would be the office of the member of Parliament,” the report adds.
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The team has further recommended to the government to prioritise the utilisation of National Economic Empowerment Fund (Neef) loans to process passports, medical examination papers, air tickets and other relevant documents for the selected workers.
“The loan deductions would be done at source on monthly basis to recover the funds provided by Neef as loans,” the report says.
Other recommendations are that the government should prioritise the establishment of an embassy in Israel whose staff should, among others, include a labour officer and his trade and investment counterpart.
It also suggests that the Ministry of Homeland Security should prioritise the issuance of 10,000 passports to those selected for the programme within the next two months.
After an oral vote, the house passed the resolution, which will see a number of drastic changes to the labour exports deal currently in force.
Minister of Labour Agness NyaLonje commended the team that travelled to Israel and filed the report and welcomed the recommendations.
“As government, we will issue a statement as soon as possible. The programme will continue and we will make sure that all youth benefit from the programme,” NyaLonje said.
The parliamentary delegation to Israel was joined by other government officials including the Secretary to Treasury and officers from the Office of the President and Cabinet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the visit, the delegation met senior Israeli officials including the Speaker of the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament), Minister of the Economy and a chairperson of the Association of Farmers in Israel and Labour agents facilitating the export.
