Operating from a modest car garage at a house in Greendale,
Harare, and unregistered by the Government, the Participatory Approaches
Consulting Services (PACS) are advertising for Zimbabweans willing to work in
Qatar.
Undercover investigations by The Herald show that the
organisation is not registered as required by law, and is circumventing
required processes and procedure.
In an undercover interview, a man who was at the PACS
office said they needed 100 people to go to Qatar by mid-October, each of them
paying US$600 administration fees.
“We want people from the age of 20 to 32 with a cleaning
background. People are expected to go as soon as mid-October and we need a CV
that is tailored to cleaning, a passport and an ‘O’ Level certificate which is
only needed as proof of school attendance.
“As soon as your documents are in place, you will be called
for an interview. Our clients provide the visa but one has to pay US$500 for
administration fees and $70 for medical examination. One will be paid a salary
of $357 per month and will sign a two-year contract. They will also provide
transport allowances and health insurance. We also facilitate for engineers to
Ireland and interns to Europe for a fee of US$1 300.”
Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare
director for employment services and promotion, Ms Maureen Dhliwayo, said PACS
was not registered as a recruiting agent.
“PACS representative came with their letter on the 21st of
this month and the letter had a signature on the back of the paper where there
was nothing written which is not the correct format. They failed to produce
their clearance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade,
which permits them to recruit people for foreign jobs,” she said.
“They also failed to produce names of companies that
required workers for us to verify if the jobs being offered are legitimate.”
It is not clear if anyone had already paid to secure the
“job”. Ms Dhliwayo encouraged the public
to consult her office for verification of foreign jobs.
Zimbabwe has been recording an increase in cases of human
trafficking, with 139 people known to have fallen victim to the criminal
enterprise while seeking jobs abroad.
Last year, the country saw an upsurge in cases of
trafficking in persons, both local and transnational.
Sixty-nine cases of trafficking in persons involving 139
victims were recorded and investigated.
Seven accused persons, who are all Zimbabweans, were arrested
for trafficking in persons. Of the seven
accused persons, four were arrested for Oman cases while three were arrested
for domestic trafficking cases. Four accused persons who were linked to the
Oman trafficking cases were arrested and they are being prosecuted.
The majority of human trafficking victims were recruited
through social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook groups after being
offered lucrative employment opportunities, only for them to be kept in de
facto slavery upon arrival in the countries where “jobs” were offered.
The plight of the women came to light in 2016, prompting
the Government to order a comprehensive investigation and to rescue them.
Last year, it emerged that scores of women were trafficked
to Oman to work as domestic workers under deplorable conditions including being
paid between US$60 to US$80 per month. Herald
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