Brokers in Kenya have illegally raised fees for domestic workers there by SR750, bringing them from SR4,125 to SR4,875, according to a recruitment expert. The Kenyan government is exerting clear efforts to curb the increases, but it cannot stop them, said Hussein Al-Mutairi, owner of a recruitment office. Some brokers in the African nation are bribing officials to complete processing transactions without official scrutiny, he added. Al-Mutairi warned Saudi nationals against dealing with unlicensed brokers in Kenya, which could cause legal problems. In a related matter, the problem of illegal fee increases does not exist in Ethiopia, which has 170 licensed recruitment offices, said Al-Mutairi. He lauded measures taken by the Ethiopian government to eliminate the activity and said authorities there refuse to receive transactions from unlicensed offices. The end of recruitment of Sri Lankan workers has resulted in greater demand for Ethiopian and Kenyan workers, said Al-Mutairi, who estimated that the recent increase has reached 60 to 70 percent. The pressure for recruitment of domestic workers has slowed the work at the concerned authorities to a point that it takes a month to complete procedures, he said. The Ethiopian Ministry of Labor completes 1,000 visas per day, which reflects the high number of number of applications national recruitment offices are receiving, he added. __
