Africa-Press – Liberia. Labour Minister Cllr. Cooper Kruah has found himself in the news again, this time for his refusal to disclose the type of jobs for which he has issued eight thousand work permits to foreigners, as Liberians roam the streets jobless.
Montserrado County Senator and Chair of Foreign Affairs at the Liberian Senate, Abraham Darius Dillon, wants Labor Minister Cllr. Cooper W. Kruah imprisoned for obstructing the function and working of the Liberian Senate.
He is also seeking his sentence for failing to provide categorized job descriptions for the Eight thousand work permits granted to non-Liberian.
Making his point on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, during the Senate hearings with Labor Minister Cllr. Kruah, regarding eight thousand non-Liberian work permits, Senator Dillon said it’s very saddened that the Minister has failed to clearly update the Senate with job categories regarding the foreigners to whom work permits have been provided.
The news comes at a time when the Labour Ministry and the Liberian Immigration Services have subcontracted the issuance of work permits to an Indian Company.
However, according to Dillon, whenever the Liberian Senate ratifies concessions, it’s their hope that such initiative will create jobs for Liberians.
He said it is within this context that the Liberian Legislature passed the Decent Work Act, authorizing the Ministry of Labor to issue regulations to protect Liberian jobs in keeping with the Liberalization policy and the issuance of work permits.
However, Sen. Dillon observed that failure on the part of the Minister to clearly state the exact jobs for which his ministry has dished out eighty thousand work permits to foreign nationals is equated to an obstruction of legislative function.
“What the Minister is currently doing here, he is reaching at the point where he is risking Contempt charges in keeping with Article 44 of the Constitution because he wants to impede and obstruct our function by his deliberate refusal to comply with plenary mandate,” Sen. Dillon argued, adding “There is no system that only carry individual names, age and nationality, when the main thing the person is applying for is not stated as to which job he is going to do. Something is wrong. The system must tell us if the work permit issued by the Minister was given to a driver or a cashier instead of it just being blank.”
Sen. Dillon further argued that Liberians will not support and trained their children in universities and technical ad vocational schools for their jobs to be given to foreigners only because the Ministry wants to raise domestic revenue by issuing work Permit for over a thousand United States dollar.
“Some of the work that they are giving out to non-Liberians are work that Liberians are qualified and ready to do. And they are paying those people over two to three thousand United States dollars a month. Now, my order to the Minister, for four months, he has been dogging this issue. Eight thousand work permits to non-Liberians for jobs that the Minister can’t provide the category and description about is troubling. The Minister is risking Contempt, and we are appealing that he be held in contempt until he can provide the list of jobs provided to foreigners,” he stressed.
On Tuesday, May 20, 2025, the Ministry of Labor represented by Minister Kruah appeared before the Senate Committee to provide updates and explanation regarding the issuance of eight thousand work permit granted to non-Liberians or foreigners across the country.
However, during the Minister appearance, he confirmed to the Liberian Senate that eight thousand permits were issued to non-Liberians but failed to tell the Senators or provided a list of the job description and category to which those permits were issued, something which anger Senator Dillon.
Dillon has been a major advocate behind the Minister’s appearance, as he wrote the Senate months ago seeking the endorsement of Plenary to cite the Minister of Labor to address the issuance of “Employment Permit,” otherwise known as “Work Permit,” to non-Liberians.
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