CON ARTISTS are never short of victims driven by desperation to seek a way out of the straits in which they find themselves. This was again exemplified in the stories told by a number of women who were apparently fleeced in recent months of local and U.S. currency as they sought jobs in neighbouring Caribbean territories, the United States and Britain.
As reported in yesterday's Sunday Gleaner, the job seekers, mainly women, have been enticed by the prospects of significantly increasing their income or obtaining jobs outside of the island.
There can be no gainsaying the fact that the responsibility is the job seekers' to check out their prospective employers as best they can before parting with their money or worse yet boarding an aeroplane to unknown destinations. It is their responsibility to arm themselves with the information as to visa requirements and work permits in the territories to which they are seeking to migrate. But at the same time, we believe the Ministry of Labour should take a more active interest in some of these job recruiters, especially those coming from overseas and to whom permits are granted to advertise for employees locally.
There is a role here for the Labour Ministry's information section - or the Government through the Jamaica Information Service - to further engage job seekers in targeted public education programmes as to what role the ministry can and does play in job advertising projects. They should also make clear what the ministry cannot do and has no responsibility for.
Various studies by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations have underscored the vulnerability of migrant workers, especially women, to abuse and exploitation. According to a recent ILO report, the increasing feminisation of international migration was likely to continue and the vulnerability of women migrants to discrimination, exploitation and abuse was also likely to increase.
While we often celebrate the resilience of Jamaican women, we should not ignore the realities that the offers and enticements are coming from 'non-traditional' recruiting countries with entirely different cultures. What kind of preparations would the 'successful' job applicants go through in such cases? And where Jamaica has no embassy, who looks after their interests?
None of this should divest the people seeking work of their individual responsibility to protect themselves. But the Government through the Labour Ministry needs to pay closer attention and set some parameters and guidelines in the public interest.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
