2 foreigners arrested for working illegally

Dar es Salaam. Two foreigners have been arrested for allegedly working in Tanzania illegally.

A labour official in the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr Yusuf Nzugile, told journalists here yesterday that both of them were employed by Shelys Pharmaceuticals.

He said further legal measures would be taken against them. According to him, one of them was found using a work permit to do a job other than that which he applied for.

The other had no work permit at all. He accused employers of breaching the Employment and Labour Act.

“When we issue a work permit to an employee, we expect him or her to engage in the type of work shown in the permit, otherwise it is contrary to the country’s laws,” he warned.

Mr Nzugile said one of the two men was employed as a procurement officer.

He explained that the other was employed as a chemist while his work permit indicated that he was a procurement officer. Shelys human resource manager Nissa Mwaipyana confirmed that the two foreigners had been detained.

However, he clarified that the situation was caused by the government delay to issue work permits to experts.

Mr Mwaipyana admitted that his office violated the law due to an acute shortage of personnel in the chemical department at the company.

He said Shelys was striving to bail the detained workers.

“We will appeal to the relevant minister on the matter because we’ve already submitted the requisite documents to the Labour Office to secure the work permits but there had been delays.”

Meanwhile, no illegal employee has been found at the Halotel offices during an operation, Mr Nzugila said.