Editorials

EDITORIAL: Expatriates’ work permits verification must be fair

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Diaspora work permit. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Interior ministry’s announcement that all expatriates verify their work permits within 60 days to help weed out illegal workers and those holding jobs that can be handled by locals will certainly cause unease.

On the face of it, this is laudable in a country where unemployment levels are high, especially among the youth. Being a key source of livelihood, employment remains an emotive matter worldwide and governments are constantly under pressure to create sufficient and quality jobs for citizens or suffer backlash.

Removing aliens from certain jobs would certainly create room for qualified locals to earn a living and help grow the economy by creating demand for goods and services. Some cartels have in the past abused loopholes in the work permit processing system to sneak foreigners into jobs that can be done by locals.

But whereas the government may be justified in its latest action, caution should be exercised to guard the country’s image as a dependable investment and business destination. Kenya’s liberal economic policy has earned it a high stature among the international community and it must jealously guard this by staying open to investors and jobseekers alike. The verification of expatriate work permits must be objective and well-structured so as to protect the dignity of foreigners legally working in the country.

Expatriates with special skills should be allowed to continue working here because the economy needs them. Like many others, the country has skill gaps that may only be filled by expatriates hence the government must stay sober as its walks down this path.

The crackdown offers the State an opportunity to audit the job market and develop a comprehensive database of the country’s workforce as a future reference point for all decisions when considering applications for employment by foreigners. This way, it would be easy to regulate the inflow of foreigners while remodelling the country education and training programmes to cater for areas that may be having skills gaps. Employers and training institutions would play a big role in ensuring the success of such an initiative by collaborating to develop skills lacking among citizens.

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