Ethiopians Eyeing Legal Ways to Get Jobs in Gulf Nations
ADDIS ABABA – The Ethiopian government says the number of people who are seeking to be employed in the Middle East legally has increased following the announcement of a plan to send job seekers abroad.
Ministry of foreign affairs says many people are coming to the ministry looking for their working documents including driving license to be authenticated.
They are doing so in a bid to use legal ways and be employed in Gulf nations through formal contracts, said Nebiat Getachew, spokesperson of the ministry.
Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has already issued licenses for 20 oversea employment agencies, allowing them to recruit Ethiopians to work abroad.
“Over the past 100 days, the ministry has authenticated over 26, 000 documents,” he said.
The Ethiopian government has already signed agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, and Saudi Araba to deploy job seekers legally.
The deals aim to deter illegal migration of people in search of employment opportunities to gulf nations.
Ethiopia plans to send over 50,000 job seekers, mostly citizens within nursing and driving qualifications, to Middle Eastern countries in the current fiscal year, which started on July 7, 2019.
MoFA’s spokesperson Nebiat said large numbers of people who have authenticated their documents are chauffeurs.
Most of them want to go to Saudi Arabia and engage as a driver, he added.
In order to ease the authentication backlogs, the ministry is now working to open document authentication centers outside of Addis Abeba.
The offices will soon be open in Bahir Dar, Mekelle, Hawassa and Adama, according to Nebiat. Ethiopia is working to create at least 3 million job opportunities in the country and abroad in the current fiscal year.
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By Sisay Sahlu
