KABUL (SW): A number of daily laborers in Badakhshan province said they have to bribe local government officials in order to get a daily job.
According to them, because of the lack of work and a large number of daily-laborers, the workers only keep 20 percent of daily wages for themselves and have to pay 80 percent of it to government officials as bribes in order to get a daily job.
Mohammad Zarif, a worker in Badakhshan said the lack of job opportunities is one of the main problems of daily wage-earning workers in the province. He added that often they return home with empty hands without finding a work for many days.
According to Zarif, the suffering and danger of hunger forced them to bribe the local officials to get jobs as daily laborers in the government offices.
Zarif added that in order to get the daily wage jobs to empty loads of vehicles carrying the materials for the Directorate of Education and Directorate of Agriculture; the workers must pay 80 percent of their wages to officials.
Sayed Samilullah Rahmani, the head of National Union of Workers and Employees in Badakhshan said that the situation of the workers in the province is alarming and the local government has not paid attention to the workers in this province so far.
According to Rahmani, the unemployment rate in Badakhshan is high; in addition, in large-scale development projects, Badakhshan’s manpower is not being used, and workers from other provinces are hired instead of local workers.
Rahmani added that any government official who comes to Badakhshan from other provinces will dismiss local workers and bring employees from his/her own province.
Meanwhile, Safiullah Etemadi, the head of Badakhshan’s Directorate of Work, also confirmed the problems of the workers in the province and said a committee had investigated the issue and the results will be provided to the local government of Badakhshan soon.
Etemadi added that in addition to increasing unemployment among ordinary workers, more than 40 percent of the educated people in the province are unemployed.
Etemadi informed that the capacity for job creation in Badakhshan is high, if the government pay attention to this province, using the local resources, many jobs will be created which can tackle the issue of the poverty in this province as well.
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