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More than 70 Illegal recruitment agencies are operating throughout the country, the chairman of the Ghana Association of Private Agencies (GHAPEA), Nana Baah Abu Okae has disclosed.

Nana Okae IV disclosed this to the Ghanaian Times when he paid a visit to the Labour Department.

According to him, the activities of these agencies usually plunge job seekers into trouble as most of them pay monies without getting jobs.

In a bid to stop the activities of these illegal operators, Nana Okae IV said his outfit would soon come out with a code of ethics for its members to help streamline their activities and also weed out the illegal recruiters.

“These codes of ethics and working standards will help us purge the system of the illegal operators in the country,” he stated.

He mentioned that as at October 31 this year, only 19 private recruitment agencies were registered and licenced by the Labour Department to operate in the country.

Seventeen of these licenced agencies, he said were located in Greater Accra and the two others in the Ashanti Region and these have been authorised to recruit for companies both locally and internationally.

Nana Okae said the licenced agencies that could be found in the Greater Accra region were Naamaa Travel and Tours Recruitment Services Limited, Abofo, Ajat Group of Companies, Global Call Initiatives Limited, Al-Drees Ghana Limited, all in Nima, Accra

He also mentioned Mount Abu Services Agency situated in Airport, Emaric Company Limited on the Spintex road and Christian Labour Association of Ghana, SOS Labour Ghana Limited, both located in Tema.

Others were, Dangaskiya Limited in Ofankor, Global Manpower Recruitment Agency at Lapaz, First Class Recruitment Services, Abossey Okai and Job Linq Africa in North Kaneshie.

The rest are Sandra K. Limited at Lashibi, the Capital Group Limited in Korle-Bu, Abu Haman Company in Kokomlemle, Arabian Gulf Travel Limited in Mamobi, and SGS Inspection and Testing Services in Roman Ridge.

He said those located in the Ashanti Region were Proudpals Company at Anwiam and Dosonec Limited in Tanoso.

An official from the Labour Department who spoke on condition of anonymity said, the department was making efforts to ensure that agencies whose mandate of operation had expired renew their licence to ensure that they operate lawfully.

The official said, the department would step up monitoring mechanism to help curb the illegal activities of the agencies.

He called on the public to report such agencies to the department so that they would together with the police bring them to book.

He advocated for a strong collaboration between the Immigration, Police and Labour Department to effectively curb the illegal agencies.

He impressed on the Immigration Service to ensure that anyone leaving the country for purposes of work should have the requisite legal documentation from the department before allowing him or her to embark on the journey.

The official also advised the Police Service and medical institutions to verify from the department before issuing out clearances to agencies who were recruiting for international purposes.

Barely two weeks ago in an interview with The Ghanaian Times, the Public Relations Officer (P.R.O) of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations Mrs. Doris Yaa Yamoah urged job seekers across the country to be cautious of job recruiting agencies in order not to be defrauded.

She noted that some agencies were taking advantage of the inadequacy of jobs in the country to cheat prospective job seekers.

She said thousands of graduates were being churned out by the tertiary institutions into the job markets every year.

However, the job opportunities were not commensurate with the number of graduates being produced.

In view of this, she said a lot of fraudulent recruitment agencies were emerging and taking advantage of the inadequacy of jobs to defraud prospective job seekers.

She called on job seekers to conduct background investigations into the activities of the agencies before applying for employment through them.

Mrs. Yamoah urged graduates not to go in for just anything because they were desperate for jobs but rather take time to scrutinize   the agency before handing over their documents to them.

“Take time and go to the Labour Department to find if such organizations exist and even if they have the mandate to recruit for companies,” she advised.