Posted 10.19.2014. at 08:55
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http://www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/Hrvatska/tabid/66/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/261156/Default.aspx

Dalmatians in hell Ebola in Sierra Leone: A dozen of us here, per day for $ 500!

- I know that Ebola has no cure and I am aware that Sierra Leone, with Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Nigeria, are the most deadly epidemic, but again I cannot go back because I see no way to rid in Croatia of debt. In one day here I earn here as much as I in Croatia for half a month, provided that I can find a job (a fat chance).

So about his story tells one of the casual workers of the British company that is engaged in several major construction projects in the West African country. Details of the contract with the employer he does not want to disclose to not endanger himself for the next job in Sierra Leone. He only stresses that, before going there, he has to undergo a thorough medical examination, because nothing is left to chance.

All of that, just as a plane ticket to destination, pays the company which counts on his construction skills for at least three or four months a year, sometimes six.

- Many would say that the Ebola is good enough reason that I forget to radically solve my financial problems. What would then be told about fact that, on-site, we are guarded by armed keepers ?! They probably would have declared me crazy. However, I'm not the only one who decided to stick his head in a bag ... From Dalmatia there are us a dozen, but we are not all engaged at the same time. People take turns, come and go - says our source.

With the citizens of Sibenik and those from Vodice, in Sierra Leone there were more "seasonal" workers from Murter. Those who were about to go back, in a few days emerged "unavoidable obligations." Neither they, as well as our testimony, want to publicly expose for the same reason. However, their relatives and friends are much more talkative. Unemployment and debt, are their only motivation for "work" in Africa.

Two Murters allegedly are working in the British military base which, by telling of their fellow villagers, is an oasis isolated from urban centers. As the are skilled in their technical jobs for which they have certificates, they were given manager contracts over other Europeans, as well as several domestic workers.

Their day salaries are, as a rule, 500 dollars, but there are cases when this amount is higher, especially if targeted qualifications are looked for. For a time there was a lack of welders, and as they were not easy to find, because not everyone will dare to journey to Africa, and local labor market did not have enough artisans offered to them daily, they were offered 700-800 U.S. dollars per day. When demand was satisfied, benefits have fallen to the usual $ 500 per day.
So were payed two mechanics from Murter who work in Sierra Leone to keep generating sets - tell us Murters.
They add, also, that in the database, in their village, they do a constant monitoring the health status of all who are employed at that base.

- In the common, working and areas for living and sleeping, also in the bathrooms are installed special sensors which constantly monitor the body temperature of staff and workers. If, for any reason, it rises above normal, the person referred is directed to isolation and rigorous medical examination. Until now, such an alarm activated only in a few cases, but it was just about a harmless cold.

We ask Murterinos about the reason of non-isolation of the returnees from Sierra Leone. Not one of them, according to unofficial information, was quarantined, what some residents of the island's municipalities, we have proved, quite worried.

- As far as we know, their health condition is constantly monitored. Do you really think that Brits would sent them with a plane to London if they had a slightest doubt about infection by Hemorrhagic Fever - we had a counter answer.

MARINA JURKOVIĆ

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IZAKOVIC