Labour exporting firms out to change fortunes
Travelers board the Air Arabia inaugural flight from Entebbe International Airport to Sharjah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on October 10, 2021. PHOTO/PAUL ADUDE
What you need to know:
- Mr Baker Akantambira, the UAERA chairperson, said the association, whose membership has grown from 25 in 2013 to the current 214, is intent on fostering productive relationships.
Recruitment firms under their umbrella body, Uganda Association of External Recruiting Agencies (UAERA), have decried the “bad publicity” that’s affecting their businesses and soiling the country’s image abroad.
About 78 firms from the 214-member body ended a three-day retreat in Jinja City—the first of its kind—to review their performance over the past nine years and set future goals.
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Mr Baker Akantambira, the UAERA chairperson, said the association, whose membership has grown from 25 in 2013 to the current 214, is intent on fostering productive relationships.
Besides appointing a coordinator to be based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, UAERA will move to strengthen ties with the Gender, Labour and Social Development ministry.
This comes on the back of externalisation of labour facing strong headwinds.
The past two years have been a perfect storm for the association, with the Covid-19 pandemic spawning different sets of interruptions.
Mr Vincent Kamugisha, the general manager of Rangers Security Ltd, said people like him who are involved in externalisation of labour are now seen as “heartless people dealing in illicit business.”
Ms Esther Nabaju—from Bantu Establishments—mooted the idea of creating a compliance committee to investigate issues.
“We need a sector image,” she said, adding: “Why should the media take over yet we can handle it internally?”
Mr Kamugisha said the dominant narrative that labour exporting countries profit from the desperation of financially constrained Ugandans is wrong.
“What Ugandans should know is that the employer finances the recruitment and the company only benefits when it successfully recruits somebody and the person goes, works successfully and returns,” he said.
He added: “But when the person fails along the way, the company makes tremendous losses.”
Mr Abbey Walusimbi, a presidential advisor on diaspora affairs, however, said some recruitment firms present fake job orders for clearance.
This, he added, is evidenced by the number of Ugandans stuck at their offices abroad with nowhere to go.
He consequently urged the firms to consider resettlement packages for returnees.
*EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story (published March 19, 2022) stated that 38-year-old Judith Nakintu revealed that she had had her right kidney harvested after Nile Treasure Gate Company recruited her to work as a housemaid in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. However this has not been proven and that allegation has since been removed from the story last updated on March 22, 2022.
