Russia has launched a project in Kenya to provide language training and adaptation courses for migrants in order to attract workers from the East African country, according to Mikhail Lyapin, a Russian entrepreneur and the man behind Mzungugram, a Telegram channel about African business.
Lyapin told RT in an interview published on Friday that Kenyans will be able to work in a variety of industries while in Russia, including logistics, construction, and manufacturing. He estimated that the pilot project would employ approximately 10,000 jobseekers in a country where official reports show rising graduate unemployment.
“We are not talking about uncontrolled migration, but rather about attracting people to specific jobs on a rotational basis. That is, people do not come to stay in Russia forever, but come for a limited period of time and then return to their home,” he said.
According to the Russian entrepreneur, while negotiations with the governments of several other African countries about the migrant recruitment project have taken place, Kenya appears to be the most active and keen participant at the moment.
“We discussed the pilot project with the Kenyan government, with several ministries, and have already moved on to the development of an interstate document, which is now at the final stage of approval and signing,” Lyapin stated.
He claimed that the initiative had been launched in response to Moscow's labor shortage.
“It is known – this is open information – that the labor shortage in Russia, according to various estimates, ranges from 2.5 million to 4 million people. About 60 million people live in Kenya.
“Kenya, of course, is not able to cover the entire labor shortage, but it can cover part of it. After the pilot project, we will, together with the state authorities of the countries and with the involvement of our side, make some decisions on increasing the volume of recruited employees,” he told RT.
Nairobi announced last week that 310,000 job opportunities would be available for Kenyans to work in Russia, Germany, Serbia, and Israel following the completion of bilateral labor agreements.
Kenyan government spokesperson Hussein Mohamed stated that there would be 250,000 jobs in Germany, 30,000 in agriculture in Israel, with 3,000 available by March of this year, 20,000 in construction and services in Serbia, and 10,000 in various sectors in Russia.