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The Ethiopian Private Employer Agencies Association
(EPEAA) made an agreement with the Ethiopian
Insurance Corporation (EIC) last week on December
20, 2007 to insure tens of thousands of people,
mostly women, sent to the Middle East to work as
domestic servants, labourers and other unskilled
employees.
The insurance policy signed requires the EPEAA’s
member employment agencies to pay a premium of 50
dollars every two years and 45 days to the EIC for
each of the workers they send. Upon the death of an
insured worker, EIC will pay 67,000 Br to the
families of employees that die in the Middle East.
Furthermore, workers who commit suicide will also be
included in the insurance policy.
“We believe that persons who commit suicide in a
work place, especially in the Middle East region,
should be included in the insurance policy because
trends show that they do so for reasons related to
the job they are engaged in,” Yosef Sahleselassie,
general manager of the Association, told Fortune.
Based on the agreement, workers who acquire mental
disorders will also get one-third of the payment
made to families of the deceased.
The Association, which has 43 member agencies that
send employees to other countries, was founded three
years ago by private employment agencies with the
objective of providing a safe working environment to
workers that travel abroad and to discourage workers
from taking hazardous, illicit journeys. According
to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees,
more than 1,400 migrants, mostly from Somalia and
Ethiopa, have drawned trying to cross the Gulf of
Aden to Yemen on makeshift boats.
This recent move by the Association came after the
Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs issued a
directive four months ago which obliges migrant
workers who travel abroad beginning from October,
2007 to have insurance coverage.
Gebremedhin Abraha,
President of the Association, told Fortune
that the agencies that operate under the Association
have welcomed the recent directive issued by the
Ministry.
“Considering the amount of problem that the workers
are facing these days, it is of paramount importance
to provide them an insurance cover,” said
Gebremedhin.
According to the Association, more than 45,000
people are sent abroad annually through the 43
agencies to countries like Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia, and Bahrain.
Delegates of Saudi employer agencies, who visited
Ethiopia a month ago, have promised that they would
cover the premium costs for the workers to the oil
rich nation. The delegates have vowed to take around
60,000 workers in the coming year.
Currently, around 75 employment agencies are
operating in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, the number of
people who migrate without proper documents far
exceeds the number of people who use the agencies.
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