Experts: Exploitation outcome of inadequate legal framework

Although labour export is increasingly recognised worldwide as a pro-poor strategy with significant development impacts, some workers have reported conditions indicative of forced labour while overseas.
The conditions include passport withholding, non-payment of wages, lack of food thus becoming victims of exploitation and trafficking.
Mr Moses Binoga, the coordinator of the prevention of human trafficking at the Ministry of Internal affairs attributed the vices to lack of adequate policy to address fully the issues of exploitation of migrant labourers.
“The current labour policy is very old because it was formulated when issues of migrant had not come up. The policies need to be reviewed to fit the current trends,” said Mr Binoga.
He said the increased cases of exploitation have resulted from desperation for jobs; “The character of people where workers go has not changed. There are also challenges in investigating cases where they are committed outside the country which weaken the evidence.”
According to Mr Binoga, there is a very big interference with victims because suspects are quick to negotiate with complainants, which have also reduced cases taken to court.
The revelations were made at the validation workshop of a communication and advocacy strategy for prevention of recruitment of women and girls into exploitative migrant labour abroad hosted by Platform for Labour Action (PLA) in Kampala.
Mr David Omoding, the communication officer for PLA, said the strategy seeks to make migrant labour a national agenda; “All issues (affecting migrant labour) must be tackled by government to value the life of its citizens through provision of favourable and protective legal framework to help citizens to go and work and come back safely.”
Ms Diana Prida, a human rights lawyer, describes migrant labour abroad as an innovation; “if well-done, it is good programme but the challenge is that it does not have a monitoring regulation and standard.”

The breakdown
“The forms of getting a job have moved from legal system to illegal and unregulated informal way, which poses a threat to migrant workers and compromising the benefits to the economy because many people are not captured in the system due to failure on licencing procedure and, therefore, compensation and other measures cannot be achieved,” said Ms Prida.
The 2013 annual report on trends of trafficking shows 51.3 per cent registered forms of exploitation was labour trafficking and exploitation, 51.7 percent of the transnational trafficking involved female and 18 percent children.
“Ugandan women are exploited into forced labour such as prostitution after being recruited for work as hair dressers, nannies, domestic workers and hotel staff,” reads the report.
However, a report on Labour Migration Management Assessment in Uganda indicates that the movement of people across national boundaries for the purpose of employment, is a typical component of globalisation and regional integration.
“It is estimated that Ugandans Diaspora, which includes migrant workers who have been residing outside the country for at least six months, send close to $1 billion in remittances every year. This amount is larger than the annual earnings from any single one of Uganda’s exports. Alongside, migrant workers in Uganda are playing an increasingly active role in its economy,” reads the report.

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