Those who lure the victims reportedly earn Ksh200,000 – Ksh800,000 ($1,550 – $6,200), but the victims often end up in slavery – working 18 hours a day and finding out that they have fake visas. File| Nation Media Group
This past week, panic has gripped East Africans in the Middle East as Lebanon came under a hail of fire from Israel and tensions between Tel Aviv and Iran reached a crescendo. The Kenyan government has been struggling to get its nationals to register for evacuation, as some are locked inside compounds by their employers. this crisis has lifted the veil on the problem of securing citizens working in dangerous places. Lebanon crisis emerged just after Kenya signed a labour export agreement with Germany, allowing the European country to tap the available skilled labour in Kenya to plug its ageing workforce.
In Nairobi, officials admit that this policy is double-edged not just in Lebanon or Saudi Arabia but in new frontiers such as Myanmar, where hundreds of East Africans have been rescued over the past four years from bondage.
As hundreds of people complained, via social media, of being abandoned in Lebanon, some 12 Kenyans filed an SOS seeking to be rescued from Myanmar, which has been under military rule over the past three years. Sources said some intermediaries, an NGO in Thailand and another in Kenya, were helping negotiations with a UN agency to help rescue them. the alarm came just three days after five Kenyans were released from bondage in Myanmar. Thai authorities then charged them with violating immigration laws there.
According to Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, these Kenyans had gone there against government policy and reportedly had to pay ransom to be freed. An official in Nairobi said a family approached the ministry last week to have their kin rescued. The East African is not naming the family because they are involved in tricky talks to free their family member.
We estimate that 100 more Kenyans are inside the compounds, and some don’t even want to be rescued, said an official involved in the discussions.On Friday, Nairobi said it had banned any labour exports to Myanmar and Lebanon and warned Kenyans against travelling there.
Ennywealth
