Govt has not lifted ban on recruitment of house helps to Gulf countries

The government has not lifted its ban of non-skilled labour to Gulf countries, a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has said.

The statement, dated September 24, 2021, said that the ban, which was occasioned after a hike in the number of abuse cases reported by migrant workers from Ghana in those countries, is still in existence.

According to a report by dailyguidenetwork.com, the statement signed by the Director of Public Affairs at the Ministry, Worwornyo Agyeman, explained that the ban however does not affect lawful recruitments into those countries.

“The ban does not affect the lawful recruitment of skilled workers (non-domestic househelp) to the Gulf States,” the statement said in part.

The ban, announced through the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and on behalf of the government was part of measures to curb the abuses.

It gave further reasons that the reported cases in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) among others bothered on national security, with many calls by human rights activists for a ban on Visa-20 – visas issued solely to those seeking to travel to the Gulf as house helps.

In 2015, the Ghana Immigration Service said in a report that over 2,000 young Ghanaian women were stranded in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon only after five months of reaching the countries through fake recruitment agencies after having been promised lucrative jobs.

Also, the report said that these women were mostly sexually molested and were meted very inhumane treatments.