Kenya to send 2,500 nurses to Saudi Arabia

Labour Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore.[File, Standard]

The Kenyan government is planning to send more than 2,500 nurses to Saudi Arabia according to Labour Cabinet Secretary Florence Bore.

"There are more than 2500 nursing job opportunities in Saudi Arabia, and we are working on it so that by mid-January we are going to deploy those diploma and degree holders to provide their services to the Saudi Arabia kingdom," she said.

According to the CS, the government has committed to increase the number of skilled workers in Saudi Arabia.

Among the professionals who are in demand in the Gulf are those in nursing, engineering, and skilled artisans.

At the same time, the ministry has pledged to weed out fake recruitment agencies who have been taking advantage of vulnerable job seekers.

"We are going to rogue out fake recruitment agencies, already we have reduced the number of agencies from 900 to 500 and we are going to limit them to 100," Bore said.

Bore spoke on Thursday, December 21, during a meeting with Takamol Agency delegates from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Nairobi.

She noted that said that the government of Kenya has signed a bilateral agreement for domestic and skilled workers with the Saudi Arabia kingdom seeking to improve working conditions.

The CS said 70 per cent of the immigrants who go to Saudi to work are not skilled, which is why they end up getting casual jobs and that more than 210, 000 are working in Gulf.

The ministry has challenged more Kenyans to apply for jobs in the country with a pledge that the entry process will be streamlined.

To achieve this, she said a special desk will be set up at the airport which will be responsible for following up on immigrants who will be out of the country for easy tracking and assistance.