** Please visit our website: http://www.africanassociation.org **

Sierra Leone workers head for Iraq
by
Saturday 30 July 2005 7:41 PM GM

About 100 Sierra Leonean nurses, lab technicians, caterers and plumbers were
this weekend flying to Iraq to join the growing number of West Africans
being contracted to perform the mundane tasks underpinning the US-led
presence in the country.

This week's departures will bring to 440 the number of Sierra Leoneans in
Iraq under a contract signed by the Sierra Leone government with a private
US supply company.

The Labour Ministry's overseas employment officer Ismael Kargbo declined to
reveal the name of the company, but said the government had contracted a
wage of roughly $100 per month for each of the workers, plus perks such as
free international telephone calls.

The recruitment programme is not confined to Iraq, Kargbo said, but includes
the supply of blue-collar skilled workers to Jordan, Afghanistan and Kuwait.

Waiting list

Labor Minister Alpha Timbo said Nigeria, Ghana and Guinea also were
supplying recruits.

"I personally feel good about the venture, and the recruits are happy to go
and work in a foreign country," he said, noting there were 2000 people on
the waiting list, vying for fewer than 400 more spots.

"Everyone is eager to go as, in its present stage, the Sierra Leone economy
cannot provide jobs for many people locally."

Though $100 seems a paltry sum for braving the hazards of Iraq, the fate of
many in Sierra Leone is comparably dire.

Emerging from a decade of brutal civil war marked by the maiming and
mutilation and rapes of thousands of civilians, Sierra Leone is the world's
least developed country, with soaring unemployment, little infrastructure
and extreme poverty.

Aminata Sesay was one of many mothers who saw off their children on
Saturday, proud that her son Amadu Turay, 24, was among those chosen to work
as a cleaner in Iraq.

"I fully support my son's decision to travel," she said. "I just need him to
call me when he arrives to tell me that things are good for him."



AFP

By

You can find this article at:

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/81E10E65-F8E7-43BD-9D83-3A846BDEF3BC.htm

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE!
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, visit:

        http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/aam.html

AAM Website:  http://www.africanassociation.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------