MALAWI: Human Rights Activist Faults “Secrecy” in Israel Labour Export Deal with Malawi
Luke Bisani
A human rights activist in Malawi, Robert Mkwezalamba, has faulted the secrecy surrounding the labour export deal that has witnessed youths in Malawi being employed to work in Israel.
Speaking during the Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA) Conservation 5th Edition held on Friday last week, Mkwezalamba disclosed that the deal has been enclosed with secrecy, creating problems for people to understand the government conditions for sending the youth to work on Israeli farms.
“As stakeholders, our call has been that the deal has been enclosed in secrecy. As a country, we only learned through the leader of the opposition that there is an airplane coming to get the youth who are to work in farms in Israel,” said Mkwezalamba.
“We also noted that there was a lack of shared information between duty bearers within the State; that is why we had this Minister saying this, another saying something different,” added Mkwezalamba.
He further added that the Malawi government needs to ensure that the deal has been in accordance with human rights as stipulated by the international charters that the country signed.
Mkwezalamba then commended the deal, saying it has great potential for solving problems rocking the country’s economy.
Concurring with Mkwezalamba, President of the Economics Association of Malawi (ECAMA), Bertha Chikadza Bangara, who was also one of the keynote speakers during the CUNIMA Conversation, said the Malawi-Israel export deal has great potential for boosting the country’s economy.
Chikadza Bangara, who is also a lecturer at Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST), highlighted the potential of labour exports as a deliberate strategy to manage the country’s forex crisis.
Earlier on, the government of Israel disclosed that it needs one hundred thousand workers from Malawi to work on farms. Estimates indicate that each Malawian farm worker could remit up to $36,000 annually, potentially earning up to $3.6 billion each year.
In 2022, the Catholic University of Malawi introduced CUNIMA Conversation, which aimed at providing a platform for discussion on matters of national importance. The conversation brings together experts from different fields to shed more light on the topic under discussion.
The fifth edition of the Conversation was discussed under the theme: Malawi’s Labour Export: Deliberate Strategy or Forex Crisis Management?
