Weeks after Malawi sent 221 youths to work in farms in Israel, Kenya has announced that it is sending 1,500 farm workers to Israel.
The Ministry of Labour in the Eastern African country says the casual workers will be deployed on three-year renewable contracts with a guaranteed net monthly income of $1,500 (about K2.6 million).
Just like in Malawi, critics in Kenya, the BBC reported, have also questioned the conditions the workers will face in Israel but some Kenyans have supported the deal, saying it provides jobs at a time when Kenya is battling an unemployment crisis and the rising cost of living.
Meanwhile, two Malawians who were among the 221 people who travelled to Israel have told the BBC that they are in Israel for greener pastures and they feel safe.
Andrew Chunga, 27, told the BBC that he is living in a two-bedroom house with two other Malawians on a farm in Gefen in central Israel, and has spent the first week removing weeds.
“When I go home, I will be a millionaire,” Chunga said laughing.
Another Malawian, Jamison Kupatamoyo, 27, said he was already aware of the conflict in Israel but the reports on social media are different from what is on the ground.
“It is only small parts of Israel that are affected – not the whole country,” said Kupatamoyo.
Israel’s ambassador in Kenya, Michael Lotem, has told the BBC that there are also plans to recruit farm workers from Uganda and Tanzania.
Israel’s agriculture ministry told CNN last week that the country needed over 30,000 farm workers.
The drive to employ thousands of workers comes as more than 10,000 migrant farm workers from Thailand have left Israel. The country has also barred Palestinian workers, who made up nearly 20% of the agricultural labour force before October this year.
In 2018, a BBC investigation found that many migrant farm workers in Israel were subject to unsafe working practices and squalid, unsanitary living conditions. Some were overworked, others underpaid, and there were dozens of unexplained deaths.
Rights groups like Human Rights Watch have also previously raised the alarm over Israel’s treatment of foreign farm labourers.
