Nankhumwa tells BBC Malawi’s exporting labour to Israel

Leader of Opposition in Parliament Rt. Hon. Dr. Kondwani Nankhumwa, says Malawi need not to export labour to war-ton countries including Israel which is at war with Hamas and Palestinians fighting for the reclamation of the land of Palestine.

Nankhumwa said exporting labour to Israel is good news for the country like Malawi but circumstances surrounding the recruitment of 221 youth who have made it on the first cohort and have safely arrived and started working in Israel, is a worrisome development.

Speaking in an interview with the BBC, Nankhumwa said the issue of exporting labour from Malawi started in Parliament last Week Wednesday when the Minister of Finance Simplex Chithyola Banda told Members of Parliament that Malawi will export 5,000 youth to a country which he did not name it.

Nankhumwa said Chithyola Banda told Parliament that Malawi is on an agreement with a certain country without elaborating what country he was referring to and hours later, he heard that a plane was on its way from Tel Aviv to pick 221 youth from Malawi through Kigali in Rwanda.

He said he raised his concerns in Parliament Government through Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda and Speaker of the National Assembly Rt. Hon. Catherine Gotani-Hara vehemently denied that describing it as a lie.

The Leader of Opposition said after the pane landed at Kamuzu International Airport (KIA) in Lilongwe, Government released a statement that it has embarked on labour exportation to other countries including Israel.

He said he don’t have problems with the wages of 1500 US Dollars per month and this is more than they can get in Malawi but the secret involved in all this which at first Government said it was a lie and only to realize that it was true.

“My problem is the secret involved in all this affair not their monthly salaries of about 1500 US Dollars,” said Nankhumwa.

The BBC reporter informed Nankhumwa that as the youth were in a plane they were very excited and some of them could be heard chanting songs mocking him but Nankhumwa responded by advising the youth to wait in the next 7 -14 days claiming that they were too excited because it was the first time to fly in the air and have reached the promised land-Canaan.

Nankhumwa said the youth after disembarking from the plane, a Jewish was speaking to them thanking Minister of Finance Simplex Chithyola Banda, Minister of Homeland Security Dr. Kenneth Zikhale Ng’oma and President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera for letting them go to work in Israel.

He said a Jewish told the youth what theynwill be doing in Israel as both commercial and political activities saying the nation don’t know what political activities they are going to do there claiming that a lot of things are happening behind curtains.