This may sound ridiculous but nevertheless it did happen, in Nigeria.

16 job seekers died while 20 others were seriously injured after a recruitment drive for the Nigerian immigration service ended up with stampedes and scrambling, last week.

4 people were crushed to death in in Enugu, which is in the south east of Nigeria, after a crowd of job seekers tried to force open a locked gate to become the first to reach the recruitment office.

Majority of them were unemployed youths.

The sudden rush occurred after they were told that only the fastest candidates who reach the recruitment venue would be considered for the next stage of hiring process.

Another 12 people died during physical and fitness exercises, which includes a pregnant woman, making the total death toll 16. Some endurance tests required the candidates to run between 2 to 3 kilometers in heat and rain.

The immigration office was handling a recruitment drive to fill up 3,000 jobs. Close to an overwhelming 200,000 applicants applied, with many of them have been unemployed for many years. Getting a job in the government sector is considered as the only way to guarantee job security in Nigeria, with government also the biggest single employer in the country at the moment.

Nigeria is one of the world’s biggest oil exporters but the country itself is plague with poverty problem and the rise of unemployment rate.

Technorati Tags: immigration, job seeker

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