Verify overseas job to avoid landing in the hands of an extremist group
A Somali officer guards suspected Al-Shabaab militants. Fully aware of the increasing appetite of Kenyan youth for foreign jobs, terrorists are baiting them.
What you need to know:
- Fully aware of the increasing appetite of Kenyan youth for foreign jobs, terrorists are baiting them.
- They advertise lucrative jobs directly or through third parties, including rogue recruitment agencies, mostly on social media.
- Some Kenyans have innocently taken up job offers—such as teachers, humanitarian aid workers and translators—only to end up being forcibly recruited into Al-Shabaab in Somalia or Islamic State in Syria (ISIS).
Many Kenyan youths consider working abroad as a dream come true to enjoy well-paying jobs and flashy lifestyles exhibited in the media.
That explains the huge interest in the ongoing applications for the US Diversity Immigrant Visa (DV) Program, commonly known as the Green Card.
The opportunities that it presents are the talk of the town, dominating conversations on social media and other platforms with hope for good American life on the horizon.
But sometimes the much-sought-after ‘soft life’ abroad can turn into a nightmare when contractual agreements or promises are unmet.
In a recent case, some Kenyans were promised jobs in Thailand only for them to be trafficked to Myanmar to join rebel groups fighting the military junta.
Although the government worked with Thai authorities to rescue them, rogue agencies still recruit unsuspecting Kenyans to fake overseas jobs, predisposing them to international crimes like terrorism, drug trafficking or even slavery.
Media has also been awash with harrowing tales of Kenyan domestic workers mistreated in Saudi Arabia akin to modern-day slavery, forcing some to seek help to return home.
The Gulf kingdom has poor labour and human rights record, making it one of the most dangerous places to work.
This is enough for the government to consider Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) Secretary-General Francis Atwoli’s proposal to deregister labour agencies that subject Kenyans to slavery and human rights abuses in the Middle East.
Fully aware of the increasing appetite of Kenyan youth for foreign jobs, terrorists are baiting them.
They advertise lucrative jobs directly or through third parties, including rogue recruitment agencies, mostly on social media.
Some Kenyans have innocently taken up job offers—such as teachers, humanitarian aid workers and translators—only to end up being forcibly recruited into Al-Shabaab in Somalia or Islamic State in Syria (ISIS).
High unemployment rate
Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) achievements in Somalia include rescuing Kenyan youth from Al-Shabaab bases in the Horn of Africa country.
The youth said they had been promised jobs abroad. Most of them took advantage of the government amnesty programme and underwent rehabilitation to be law-abiding citizens by National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) and other organisations.
The extremists exploit Kenya’s high unemployment rate to lure vulnerable youth. World Bank data show 5.7 per cent of the labour force was out of work last year.
Worse, more than a million youth graduate from tertiary institutions yearly into a shrinking labour market.
That makes jobless youth vulnerable to absorption into criminal or terrorist outfits locally and abroad.
Probably, job creation and economic revival following the Kenya Kwanza-promised ‘Hustler Fund’ will be the silver bullet to end unemployment.
Extremists also entice youth with scholarships so as to sneak them out to countries such as Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq for terrorist activities.
Besides, Kenyan students abroad, especially in traditional terrorism hot spots, have been targeted for recruitment into extremist groups.
That is how Salim Rashid Mohamed, from Mombasa, ended up in ISIS while studying computer engineering at Turkey’s Istanbul Kultur University.
Salim scored an A-minus in the 2014 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) but his life is now ruined.
Conduct due diligence before signing up for an overseas job or scholarship. It is advisable to conduct research and reach out to the respective Kenyan embassy to confirm the authenticity of organisations that offer such opportunities.
The rule of thumb is to think twice when the deal is too good to be true.
The government should vet recruitment and education placement agencies to weed out the rogues that expose Kenyans to suffering abroad or recruitment to extremist groups.
It is its duty to protect and safeguard the citizens. Let it also make a deliberate effort to create a conducive environment for income-generating ventures locally to reduce the movement of Kenyans to foreign lands.
Mr Mugwang’a, a communications consultant, is a member of the Crime Journalist Association of Kenya (CJAK). [email protected].
