The Chronicle can confirm that a recruitment process for security personnel is currently going on at a hotel in Accra, not too far from the Ghana Police Headquarters, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the Ghana Immigration Service and the Standard Chartered Bank, on the Ring Road.
The process has been going on since last Monday.The recruitment process, The Chronicle’s investigation has revealed, is being done by a security company from Qatar (name withheld). They are recruiting people from Ghana for the World Cup in Qatar later this year, to work as security personnel.
The company from Qatar is working through some agents here in Ghana, who have mobilised the potential personnel. The documents required are an academic certificate, a valid passport and a COVID-19 vaccination card.
Though The Chronicle understands the Qatari company has not charged interested parties yet, the agents who link these individuals to the Qatari security agency take at least GH₡3000.00 from their clients. The prices differ depending on the agent.
At our last check, the company was training some three hundred Ghanaians for this supposed security job opportunity in Qatar, specifically for the 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament.
According to people The Chronicle spoke to, some of whom are part of the recruits, they will spend three months in Qatar before returning to Ghana. This period is longer than that of the tournament.
They have also been convinced of a reward of GH₡12,000.00 equivalent for the entire period they will work as security during the tournament. Whilst some of the job seekers go to the venue in Sprinter buses as groups on a daily basis, others also go there individually. But some were lodged in the hotel for the period of the training, The Chronicle was told.
PROCESS
When The Chronicle visited the recruitment venue on two different occasions, it noted that a lot of Ghanaian youth – all males – troop to the hotel on a daily basis to take part in the training ahead of the supposed trip.
Our investigations revealed that those who are being trained were recruited by agents, who prepared lists and schedule for the training that is being supervised by a light skin man, both in the morning and afternoon, on each day.
This reporter, who went to the venue for the training under the guise of seeking enlistment, was told by some of the recruiting agents that they were willing to help any interested person to undertake the training and subsequently offered the job opportunity to travel to Qatar for three months.
According to these agents, positions they are looking for is General Security and Supervisors. Whereas the former is for applicants without a degree, the latter is for those with a degree.
The recruits this paper spoke to were split over the departure date.
Some said the first batch will leave Ghana on Sunday, September 18, 2022 but others were not sure of the departure date, though those in the upper class have signed their offer letter.
TIP-OFF
Meanwhile a source with security background has told The Chronicle that a similar issue occurred in 2018, when some Ghanaian ex-servicemen were promised security jobs at the World Cup in Russia, but that never happened.
According to him, he was told by one of the ex-servicemen who had shown interest in the recruitment that the security agency was not taking money from them.
However, owing to experience, the whistle-blower feared that as the process progresses, these recruits may be asked to pay money for visa processing and that it is where they may lose their money.
Also, several reports indicate how some Ghanaians who were lured with job opportunities in other countries went through inhumane treatments.
The Chronicle cannot,however,confirm whether or not the security agencies, the Ministries of Youth and Sports and Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration are aware of this recruitment currently ongoing.
