Stop the Slave Trade in Kenya
The Issue
A soul sold is one too many! The ravaging consequences of the slave trade are painted all over the world today. Slavery devastated the lives, well-being, and dignity of Kenyans as they were inhumanely seized, grouped, tied in bundles, thrown into crowded ships, and destined for auction in foreign continents.
The Slave trade is back in Kenya. But with a new name and disguises. It is now called human trafficking or modern slavery. The contemporary slave traders, who are criminal gangs operate legally registered businesses as a cover. Most of these registered businesses are employment/ recruitment agencies.
These employment agencies have been licensed to recruit and export Kenyan girls and boys to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, and Kuwait. Unfortunately, their practices are not adequately or transparently monitored and evaluated. This means that criminal gangs have an easy and seemingly legal channel to sell Kenyans through registering and operating international employment agencies in Kenya.
On 21st April 2022, Mr. Francis Atwoli, who is the Secretary-General of the Central Organization of Trade Unions (Kenya) (COTU) acknowledged that “our daughters are dying in Saudi Arabia and other places with the consent of the government that is supposed to protect them”. On several occasions, Kenya has witnessed girls and boys who have been tortured, maimed, killed, and whose rights were grossly abused as a direct result of being trafficked to the Middle East by international employment agencies based in Kenya.
Every day, Nairobi is getting flooded with sites of young and naive girls who are evidently from Kenyan remote villages and Uganda. They are being processed for export to the Middle East. They are sited around Nyayo house where passports are processed and around hospitals where medical procedures necessary for travel are procured and paid for by the trafficking criminal gangs.
General elections heighten the vulnerability of persons to human trafficking. Thus, it is important for the Kenyan government to act now, before the upcoming general elections scheduled for August 2022.
In the words of the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Mr. Simon K. Chelugui, EGH, “human trafficking is not only an injustice to the victim, but it is an injustice unto the families and friends of that victim”.
Kindly sign this petition, ask the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection to:
1. Announce an immediate suspension on Kenya - Middle East labour export pending the fresh vetting of international and local employment agencies by a multi-agency task force.
2. Vet every Employment agency to establish the accurate number and the status of persons recruited and exported to the Middle East for labour between 2014 and 2022.
3. Require ALL Employment Agencies to deposit and register copies of duly signed and attested foreign contract of service forms outlining individual employment terms with the Kenya’s Ministry of Labour and Social Protection before travel.
4. Maintain an accurate physical and online up-to-date database of ALL Kenyan-based local and international employment agencies and statistics of persons recruited and exported to the Middle East by every agency accessible to anti-trafficking civil society organisations.
5. Require ALL Employment Agencies to conduct a pre-contract and pre-travel online interview between employees based in Kenya and employers based in the Middle East.
6. Perform a crack-down on illegal recruitment agencies and brokers for foreign criminal networks.
REFERENCES
Remarks for the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection Mr. Simon K. Chelugui, EGH During the Commemoration of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, 30th July 2021
United States of America- Department of State, 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report, pp. 328-331
https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/TIPR-GPA-upload-07222021.pdf
The New Slavery: Kenyan workers in the Middle East
Kenyan Domestic Workers’ Doomed Voyages to the Gulf
https://www.ipsnews.net/2022/01/kenyan-domestic-workers-doomed-voyage-gulf/
2,888
The Issue
A soul sold is one too many! The ravaging consequences of the slave trade are painted all over the world today. Slavery devastated the lives, well-being, and dignity of Kenyans as they were inhumanely seized, grouped, tied in bundles, thrown into crowded ships, and destined for auction in foreign continents.
The Slave trade is back in Kenya. But with a new name and disguises. It is now called human trafficking or modern slavery. The contemporary slave traders, who are criminal gangs operate legally registered businesses as a cover. Most of these registered businesses are employment/ recruitment agencies.
These employment agencies have been licensed to recruit and export Kenyan girls and boys to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, and Kuwait. Unfortunately, their practices are not adequately or transparently monitored and evaluated. This means that criminal gangs have an easy and seemingly legal channel to sell Kenyans through registering and operating international employment agencies in Kenya.
On 21st April 2022, Mr. Francis Atwoli, who is the Secretary-General of the Central Organization of Trade Unions (Kenya) (COTU) acknowledged that “our daughters are dying in Saudi Arabia and other places with the consent of the government that is supposed to protect them”. On several occasions, Kenya has witnessed girls and boys who have been tortured, maimed, killed, and whose rights were grossly abused as a direct result of being trafficked to the Middle East by international employment agencies based in Kenya.
Every day, Nairobi is getting flooded with sites of young and naive girls who are evidently from Kenyan remote villages and Uganda. They are being processed for export to the Middle East. They are sited around Nyayo house where passports are processed and around hospitals where medical procedures necessary for travel are procured and paid for by the trafficking criminal gangs.
General elections heighten the vulnerability of persons to human trafficking. Thus, it is important for the Kenyan government to act now, before the upcoming general elections scheduled for August 2022.
In the words of the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Mr. Simon K. Chelugui, EGH, “human trafficking is not only an injustice to the victim, but it is an injustice unto the families and friends of that victim”.
Kindly sign this petition, ask the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection to:
1. Announce an immediate suspension on Kenya - Middle East labour export pending the fresh vetting of international and local employment agencies by a multi-agency task force.
2. Vet every Employment agency to establish the accurate number and the status of persons recruited and exported to the Middle East for labour between 2014 and 2022.
3. Require ALL Employment Agencies to deposit and register copies of duly signed and attested foreign contract of service forms outlining individual employment terms with the Kenya’s Ministry of Labour and Social Protection before travel.
4. Maintain an accurate physical and online up-to-date database of ALL Kenyan-based local and international employment agencies and statistics of persons recruited and exported to the Middle East by every agency accessible to anti-trafficking civil society organisations.
5. Require ALL Employment Agencies to conduct a pre-contract and pre-travel online interview between employees based in Kenya and employers based in the Middle East.
6. Perform a crack-down on illegal recruitment agencies and brokers for foreign criminal networks.
REFERENCES
Remarks for the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection Mr. Simon K. Chelugui, EGH During the Commemoration of the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, 30th July 2021
United States of America- Department of State, 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report, pp. 328-331
https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/TIPR-GPA-upload-07222021.pdf
The New Slavery: Kenyan workers in the Middle East
Kenyan Domestic Workers’ Doomed Voyages to the Gulf
https://www.ipsnews.net/2022/01/kenyan-domestic-workers-doomed-voyage-gulf/
2,888
The Decision Makers
Petition created on 30 April 2022