By Balford Henry, Senior Reporter
THE INCIDENCE of foreign agents coming to Jamaica to recruit nurses and teachers for their services has become so commonplace and public, that even the police seem surprised to hear that the practice is illegal.
Constabulary Communications Network (CCN) spokesman Deputy Superintendent James Forbes says that immigration police informed him that they had never received a complaint about the practice.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Security insists that the fault must be with the immigration police, or the Ministry of National Security, whose duty it is to require that recruiters show permission obtained from the Ministry to conduct recruitment in Jamaica.
"The Ministry doesn't know when they are coming into the island and they probably don't tell the immigration police that they are here to recruit, for which they would need a work permit or permission from us," said Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Anthony Irons.
Both Mr. Irons and the Ministry's Director of Manpower Services, Barry Bailey, who heads the overseas employment section, say that no recruitment should be done without their permission and, in any case, permission cannot be given to recruit either teachers or nurses because they are in short supply.
Mr. Forbes said that if the immigration officers get wind of illegal recruitment, they would move in on the recruiters and arrest them: "But people can come in as tourists and carry out these activities."
Last month, the Ministry said that only two companies, Cape Cod and Antioch Employment Services, were licensed to recruit people in Jamaica to work overseas, but in their case, as well, teachers and nurses are exempted.
Ministry of Education and Culture public information officer Edwin Thomas said he was not aware that there was anything illegal about recruiting teachers in Jamaica. "I was a teacher myself and I did not know this. My experience is that this is something that has always been going on."
Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) secretary general Dr. Adolph Cameron responded: "If they want to stop teachers from leaving, they will have to pay them better." He said that if recruitment locally is blocked, the teachers could turn to the Internet.
Teachers are mostly recruited for other Caribbean islands and usually by way of advertisements but, in the case of nurses, the recruiters travel to Kingston on a regular basis to do the recruitment.
Up to Sunday March 18, a group calling itself Loving Hearts Inc. were recruiting nurses at a seminar at the Hilton Hotel, New Kingston. By the time The Gleaner checked the hotel the following day to talk to the principals, they had booked out of the hotel.
Mr. Irons said that even if they were here to hold a seminar they would have needed a work permit exemption from the Ministry. They did not apply for one.
Loving Hearts Inc. offered the nurses employment in the United States and a Green Card to go with it for US$5,500 upfront.
A spokesman for the US Embassy in Kingston when asked what they knew about the firm, told The Gleaner: "The US Embassy was not contacted by the company. The US Embassy does not have any information on the company. Immigration regulations do allow recruiting companies to act as petitioners to file I-129 petitions for nurses' prospective employment in the United States. There are regulations allowing nurses to adjust to legal permanent residency status, after having worked with (regular) H2 visas."
Nurses Association of Jamaica president Iris Wilson said that although the Association was aware of the restrictions on recruitment, there was nothing that could be done to stop it.
"We are aware that the Ministry says it is not legal, that they really should have work permits, but how to stop them is another matter," she said.
Miss Wilson said that because the salaries paid to nurses locally were "quite low" there were large numbers of nurses who wanted to emigrate.
But, she admitted that the US$5,500 fee requested by Loving Hearts for recruitment was unusual. She said that normally the nurses were given six months to work and pay back the recruiters but, in this case, the lure of a Green Card may have been irresistible.
"That is really over J$200,000, which might be a deterrent, but some nurses say they don't mind because of the prospects abroad," she said.
Miss Wilson said, though, that the NAJ was concerned about nurses being ripped-off in the process: "We say to members make sure you explore before jumping on the bandwagon." Recently a number of the nurses have taken to surfing the Internet, which is much safer, in search of jobs abroad, she said.
