Recruitment of Foreigners In Cameroon: Disturbing Proportion Of Illegal Workers

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Recruitment of Foreigners In Cameroon: Disturbing Proportion Of Illegal Workers

19 juil. 2022 16:37

The government through the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training is bent at curbing the phenomenon that is alarming following numerous second generation development projects in the country.

About 10,000 foreigners are working in Cameroon illegally according to statistics of the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training. This number is quite alarming in a country where unemployment is said to be rife. According to the National Institute of Statistics, employment rate grew by 6.1 per cent in 2021. While Cameroonian youth are largely unemployed with a 27.1 per cent unemployment rate for certificate holders according to the Ministry of Youth Affairs, migrant foreign workers are clinching on the few available jobs and doing so sometimes in an illegal manner.

The worrying situation pricked authorities of the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training with the Minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary issuing a circular letter recently to heads of enterprises drawing their attention to the need for the respect of laid down rules and regulation. Through investigations carried out in the field by the competent authorities of the Ministry of Employment, the foreign workers exercising remunerated professional activities in Cameron without work permit enter into the country with varied motives. As explained by the Director of Regulation of Workforce in the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, Jeanine Eba Ngo’o, some of these workers come in without declaring to the Immigration officers of the National Security who issue entry visas that they are workers. “Many enter the country as business men, tourists, investors and on arrival in the territory, they take up professional work activities illegally.” It is not the fault of the General Delegation for National Security nor that of the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training,” she said, adding that the phenomenon if blamed on declarations that are not sincere.

The phenomenon of irregular foreign workers is also attributed to the numerous development projects ongoing within the presidential mandate of Greater Realization of President Paul Biya. Thus, the workers are in different sectors of activities. Information gathered at the level of the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, indicates that the illegal foreign workers are in Public Works and Construction, mining, gas and oil exploration, electrici...