Unemployed nurses and midwives have demanded an explanation from Malawi Government over its decision to block National Organization of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi (NONM) from sending jobless nurses and midwives to United States and Saudi Arabia.
The health workers have written the Ministry of Labour expressing their concerns over the issue.
These are nurses who graduated between 2015 and 2021 but many are jobless while some have been working in different public and CHAM hospitals across Malawi on allowance basis.
NONM lobbied for employment opportunities from Saudi Arabia and United States of America for the nurses since the Government which trained the same Nurses and Midwives seemed failing to employ them.
However, Minister of Labour Vera Kamtukule was quoted by MIJ Online last week as saying that NONM does not have the legal mandate to conduct labour migration.
The remarks have not gone well with the nurses who are looking for employment.
“Unfortunately, it appears that the Ministry of Labour is denying permission for NONM to export a huge chunk of unemployed Nurses and Midwives who are languishing in poverty in the streets of Malawi,” reads part of the letter signed by Lucius Gerrald, spokesperson of the grouping.
The grouping has since demanded an explanation on why the Ministry of Labour denied the move of sending nurses and midwives abroad when same government has no urgent intentions to employ nurses amid this economic crisis.
“Further, we proceed to ask the Ministry of Labour to allow NONM to continue processing the exporting of unemployed nurses and midwives to USA and Saudi Arabia. If the Ministry of Labour continues barring NONM on the plans to export a huge chunk of unemployed nurses and midwives, we demand that the ministry should employ the same number of nurses and midwives NONM intended to export,” reads part of the statement.
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