LMU reminds public on bogus agents
By Eliza Kukutu
The Labour Mobility Unit (LMU) within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade are reminding the public to be aware of bogus agents promising employment for the Labour Mobility programme.
With the increased interest in the programme, the LMU has been made aware of individuals losing their money to persons claiming to be recruiting agents for the programme.
LMU Director, Christina Marau explains that these programmes are free and do not require payment to apply for employment.
“This is a free programme where to access it, there shouldn’t be any payment. You only should be paying for services like passports, medical and police clearance costs. Other than that, the programme itself is free.”
She also reminds the public that there is no fee to be paid for fast processing of applications.
“If someone asks you to give money so they can do fast processing for your applications, that is not legitimate. This programme does not operate that way. Individuals are only supposed to be paying service providers,” she said.
As of last year, a total of 6,800 locals were recorded to be employed in Australia under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) Scheme, and over 700 under New Zealand’s Recognized Seasonal Employment (RSE) scheme.
Given the high unemployment rate in the country and continuous positive feedback on the performance of locals in the programmes, the LMU expects the figures to increase this year.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Marau also clarifies confusions around the selection of applicants from the Work Ready Pool. She explains that selections are done by employers and not the LMU.
“Labour Mobility is a demand driven programme and we depend much on the demand from Australia and New Zealand. So, workers who have applied and are in the Work Ready Pool will have to wait until we receive demand from employers for workers.”
” The employers will then be doing their selection from the applicants in the Work Ready pool.”
A major recruitment last year saw a total of 16,042 applications submitted through the LMU’s online recruitment and provincial outreach.
Mrs. Marau said they are hoping to complete screening for these applications by June this year.
“It is an ambitious target but we are seeking the publics patience on this to allow us to do screening on all applications, so that they can be included in the Work Ready Pool.”
ENDS//