One of the things that stood out from the newly released Central Bank of Kenya data is the rising profile of Saudi Arabia as a key source of remittances.
At Sh22.65 billion ($188.79 million), the money sent back home by Kenyans living and working in the Gulf nation in the first eight months of the year was the third-highest behind inflows from the US and the UK.
It also underscores the importance of Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours as labour export markets for Kenya in light of the rising unemployment in the East African nation.
But this must not distract from the need to address the concerns of Kenyan migrant workers in the Middle East.
Reports of female domestic workers complaining about mistreatment by their employers or recruiters keep popping up on social media.
Only two weeks ago, Diana Chepkemoi was repatriated from Saudi Arabia having made a distress call through video footage of her in poor health. To its credit, the Ministry of Labour seemed to have coordinated better with the Saudi Arabia authorities for a quick response in Ms Chepkemoi’s case.
But there is also a need for measures to stop the problem at source – starting with weeding out the rogue recruitment agencies who lure desperate job seekers abroad and then abandon them.
Kenyan officials must also continue to engage their Saudi counterparts to demand a review of the latter’s visa-sponsorship rules, known as the kafala system, that tie migrant workers to their employers and bar them from changing jobs or leaving the country without permission.
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