Labour exportation companies resume operations 

Labour exporting companies that shut down their businesses in protest of the government’s suspension of the exportation of labour to the Middle East will reopen after the restrictions were lifted.

In October, government suspended the exportation of labour due to rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the country.

The Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Mr Frank Tumwebaze, said the ban has been lifted on all travellers provided they enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the Health ministry.

“This is to inform all licenced companies involved in the sourcing of external employment for Ugandan migrant workers that following the relaxing of a number of Covid-19 lockdown measures by the government and resumption of air travel, the gender ministry will lift the ban on labour export by licenced companies in accordance with the existing mandatory Covid SOPs,” Mr Tumwebaze said yesterday in a statement. 

The labour exporting firms under their association, Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies (UAERA), said they would not open until government lifted the ban on exportation of female workers to serve as maids. The companies argued that the banned services contribute 80 per cent of their business. 

There are around 165,000 Ugandans working in the Middle East and contribute Shs$650m (Shs2.4 trillion) to the economy every year, according to statistics from UAERA. 

Mr Tumwebaze said the ministry’s permanent secretary will draw guidelines for the labour exporters to follow.

Mr Aggrey Kibenge, the newly appointed permanent secretary of the ministry, in an interview with Daily Monitor yesterday, said the ministry will first sort out the issues of brutality and mistreatment of Ugandans who are working abroad.

Mr Kibenge said they need clear commitments from UAERA that the welfare of the women who are going to work abroad will be respected.

“The minister, Mr Frank Tumwebaze, initiated talks with the Ministry of Health, making a case for lifting the ban on externalisation of labour. But even before there was that ban, there were many issues related to welfare of workers,” Mr Kibenge said.

He added: “We are also in talks with the Uganda Ambassador in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mr Zake Kibedi. We are going to talk to UAERA to address the issue of welfare of girls from Uganda who are going to work abroad.”

The executive director of UAERA, Ms Enid Nambuya, welcomed the lifting of the ban, but said they have not yet got an official communication from the Ministry of Labour. 

Mr Ronald Mukundane, the spokesman of UAERA, said: “Once the letter from the permanent secretary is received, we shall tell all our members to open their offices subject to the set SOPs.”