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    "id": 1119976,
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    "content": "Department for Immigration. We also met with the National Employment Authority (NEA) that vets and registers the agents who send workers or rather who facilitate their employment, the recruitment agencies and the two associations of these recruitment agencies. We acknowledge the efforts of the Ministry of Labour to implement certain specific activities in the course of 2021/2022 and whose objective is to enhance labour migration processes and governance. However, we are concerned about the deteriorating conditions of migrant workers particularly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We are of the opinion that the processes likely to protect life and welfare of Kenyan migrant workers supersedes all others and, therefore, must be prioritized. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, while we were there, we met with the Ministry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on human resource and the mega recruitment agencies there. Those mega recruitment agencies are huge companies that deal with recruitment from across the world. It is important to note that for one to be registered as a mega recruiter in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, they have to put a security deposit that is equivalent to Kshs3 billion. That is not what we are proposing, but there must be a level of security deposit. A Kenyan worker who leaves this country should be insured and should have a guarantee of their flight back in case they want to leave. We should know where they are staying, in whose family they have been recruited and a contact number that can be used in case anything happens to them while they are there. They must be protected. It is important to note that labour, especially labour migration is a huge potential economic frontier for this country. However, our country lacks a comprehensive policy and legal framework useful to guide, govern and create stability in the migration process. The fact that we lack that is not a secret. There is no labour migration law. There is no national migration policy. We engaged a few weeks ago with all those departments and talked about a draft, but that draft speaks very lightly on labour migration, which is the biggest cause of migration. We do not have migration from Kenya because of war or hunger. People migrate from Kenya to seek opportunities. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we saw the case studies of other countries that are taking care of their people even in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They have negotiated Government to Government. They have even negotiated salaries. They have negotiated the rates of calling back home. They have negotiated the rates of remittances and the status of their people. A Kenyan living in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, the United States of America (USA) or in the United Kingdom (UK) is as Kenyan as a Kenyan living in Nairobi, Kisumu or Nyeri. They must be treated with the same dignity. The National Migration Policy has been in the works for a long time and so we asked: Do we wait? I am glad Sen. Madzayo is a Member of my Committee because he was there when we went through this. Do we wait for them to finish yet we know the policy process? Sen. Wetangula has been a Minister. I am sure that he knows the process of what happens before you can have a sessional paper discussed in memos, sub- committees, for it to come here. By the time all that is done, we will have lost another 100 lives."
}