A Ghanaian returnee from Qatar has advised Ghanaian youths to abandon any dreams of seeking employment in the Middle Eastern country because it is not worth the while.

The young man, (name withheld) told a local radio station -JoyFM - that he went to Qatar as part of a group recruited through the Rahman Consultancy firm in Accra with promises of fantastic emoluments.

He said before departure he was promised a monthly salary of 500 dollars and an extra 150 dollars for overtime, however on his arrival in Qatar, the Al Jaber Company that he worked for as a labourer paid him 500 rial instead.

500 Qatari rial converts to just about 138 US dollars.

“When we went there they changed the whole thing. They told us they would give us Qatar currency that is 500 rial and that 500 rial they would deduct the money they were going to give us for feeding from the money they were going to pay us, so they would deduct 200 rial from the money they were going to pay us.”

Asked if they were promised free accommodation and food, he said Al Jaber did promise them the facilities but the feeding turned out not to be free. He said after the deduction, what was left of the monthly salary was nothing to depend on since the cost of living was very high.

He said when the going got too tough for him, he decided to call it quits but with no money to pay for his flight back home, he had to impress upon relatives back home in Ghana who obliged him with an Emirates Airline ticket to return.

“I don’t advise any Ghanaian to step in that land again. If you have money, find something to do here. The little that you get, even if 500,000 cedis here in Ghana it is better than going to that place. Living conditions there is not easy.”

Meanwhile the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment says it will conduct more stringent checks for any future recruitment of Ghanaians to work abroad.

The Director for Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Okuampa Archer told Joy News that though thorough due diligence was done on the Qatar-based Al-Jaber construction firm, the fallouts from the experiences of the group of Ghanaian workers claiming to be enduring unpleasant conditions require that prospective job seekers receive better counselling.

The current group of workers in Qatar numbering about 200 have been agitating against what they call harsh working conditions and unpaid salaries, part of which has since been paid.

The payment however failed to convince the workers of any hopes for the future and a number of them are arriving back home in Ghana.

Dr. Okuampa Archer who sat through the interviews during the recruitment drive with Rahman Consultancy said the highest paid job offered 5 thousand rial while an amount of five hundred rial was offered a labourer.

But he says the panel was not informed that the promised feeding allowance to the workers was to be paid out of their salaries.

He told Joy News that several job seekers declined to take up the offer when details of the deal were made known to them, apparently due to its lack of appeal.

He maintained that those workers in Qatar claiming to have been promised dollar rated salaries were recruited outside the joint interviewing panel.

“We were told that they would be paid overtime, that is if they worked for it. We were told they were going to work for the normal working hours in Qatar, eight hours and then all other hours would be computed as overtime. They also told us they would give the workers free accommodation; some of them were going to be two in a room or four together; they were going to be given transport to and from work and also they were going to be given medical care as and when they needed it, it was to be free, and they were going to help them get resident permits.”

He said there was no indication during the interview that the cost of free feeding promised the workers was to be deducted from their salaries.