Labour exports to Middle East up by 15, 000
Oliver Hannah Kizza, who worked in Dubai as a salesperson for a year before returning to Uganda at Two Niles where she was applying for a job in Dubai. The Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies says up to 65, 000 Ugandans are doing odd jobs in the Middle East. File photo
What you need to know:
- The government in January 2016 banned the export of maids
- The ban came on the heels of reports that many were being mistreated by their Saudi Arabian employers
Kampala. Up to 65, 000 Ugandans are doing odd jobs in the Middle East, the Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies (UAERA) says.
This is 15, 000 higher than the number that was working there one year ago.
Most are working as either cleaners, waiters/waitresses, drivers, tailors, construction and factory workers or security guards.
“Their annual contribution in the form of remittances is $400, 000,” the acting chairperson of the UAERA, Lillian Keene Mugerwa, told the House Committee on Gender, on Wednesday.
The committee had summoned the 63–member association to brief the committee on its business.
Due to unemployment in Uganda, some of the Ugandans now working in countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, sold family property to finance their flights to the Middle East.
Many were made to believe that the ‘returns’ there would be higher than they would ever make in Uganda.
The government in January 2016 banned the export of maids.
The ban came on the heels of reports that many were being mistreated by their Saudi Arabian employers.
Ms Mugerwa, who was accompanied by the Managing Director of Middle East Consultants Gordon Mugyenyi, the MD of Magrib Agencies Ltd Catherine Ocen Ssabwe and the General Manager of Horeb Services Ezra Mugisha, urged the government to lift the ban on the export of maids.
They said the ban is not serving the purpose.
“The ban was put into place without taking into account the fact the majority of the workers that were complaining [of mistreatment] had been deployed by [human] traffickers,” Ms Mugerwa said.
“The few licensed companies...stopped. But as we stopped, the traffickers continued to export people to Saudi Arabia. When Saudi Arabia stopped the influx, the traffickers are now taking maids to Oman.”
Serere Member of Parliament, Patrick Okabe, concurred with the recruitment agencies and said the ban should be lifted.
“If we maintain the ban, people will find alternatives,” Mr Okabe said.
Ms Beatrice Anywar, the vice chairperson of the Gender committee called on government should address the reasons that drive Ugandans abroad.
According to Action Aid (2012), six in every ten Ugandans are unemployed.
Some lack the skills employers need.
In other cases, the economy is not expanding as fast as the labour force.
