Tourism players, traders cry out over Dubai flights ban

Key players who have largely been affected by the ban issued by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) suspending flights from Uganda from December 28 over Covid-19 concerns are counting losses.

Those that this publication interviewed yesterday, including traders, tourism players and labour exporters, said the decision was rushed and has already impacted on their businesses.

UAE’s business hub Dubai being one of the largest suppliers of goods to Uganda, traders are among the categories that are most affected by the ban.

Traders are concerned that their businesses will run out of stock and as a result triggering scarcity of some commodities, hence pushing their prices up. 

Labour exporters, on the other hand, who use the Dubai airport to connect to other airports, have also been tremendously affected, as well as tourist companies.

Mr Francis Ddamulira, the general secretary of Kampala Arcade Traders Forum, said many of their members who had made business travel bookings to various destinations are stuck. 
Most arcade traders deal in electronics, phones and fine fabrics that they import from Dubai and other countries via Dubai.

“We normally book these goods and we only go to confirm and make payments before they are shipped to the country. Now with this ban, we are stuck,” Mr Ddamulira said. 

“Secondly, our supplies, which we imported before Christmas, are running low and many of our members would wish to travel immediately after the New Year,” he said.

Mr Ddamulira said with no online verification system to check if the goods supplied are the ones you ordered, it will be very difficult for them to import goods.

The chairperson of Kampala City Traders Association (Kacita), Mr Thaddeus Musoke, said: “All the same, we will use our contacts in Dubai and friends to ship our products here,” he said.

Tourism sector
The tourism sector players said the decision was a rushed one and will affect the country’s tourism sector because Dubai is the main route through which passengers travelling to Uganda transit.

Mr Herbert Byaruhanga, the chairperson of Uganda Tourism Association, and the secretary of the Association of Uganda Tour Operators, said the UAE should have waited a little longer because the government of Uganda is already working hard to contain the situation.

“It will affect the sector grossly, especially at this time when we are trying to recover. Dubai is one of our main routes to the rest of the world and such an abrupt decision might hurt their loyal customers as well,” Mr Byaruhanga said.

External labour market hit
The Middle East is one of the biggest destinations for Ugandan domestic workers and a big source of foreign remittances for the country. 

A 2017 value-for-money audit report by the Auditor General put the figures of revenue from externalisation of labour at $1.2b, and a 2019 report by the Ministry of Labour indicated that $600m was remitted from the Middle East alone, while the rest came from other parts of the world.

Statistics from the Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies indicate that currently, between 9,000 to 13,000 migrant workers leave Uganda monthly to work in the Middle Eastern countries.

Several recruitment companies this newspaper talked to were cagey on how the ban is affecting the external labour industry, referring our reporter to the Association of External Recruitment Agencies.

They said while they will feel the pinch of the ban, they cannot speak on record about it.

Mr Ronny Mukundane, the public relations officer of the Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies, yesterday told this publication that the ban is a huge setback to the external labour industry. 

“It has a very big impact because the UAE is one of the biggest countries where we source employment for our people but also works as a transit route for many people. But for this particular closure, it means we cannot send workers to the UAE, which has effects on both the potential workers and the recruitment agencies,” he said.

Asked how many workers have been affected by the latest ban, Mr Mukundane said he did not have the figures because different companies get cleared at different times.

He said the association was working with different recruitment agencies to see how to help those who should have traveled, but are now stuck.

“We are engaging the candidates who were to travel and those who are close to travelling together with our members, the labour companies to give them, first of all, psychosocial support so that they can wait, especially those who are supposed to go and work in the UAE. For those going to other countries through the UAE, they can still travel because they are enroute to their destinations,” he said.

Mr Aggrey David Kibenge, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, which licenses and supervises the labour export companies, said while the problem is real, there is little the ministry can do at the moment.

Mr Kibenge said the government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will try to look into the issues of negotiating with Dubai.

“I have not talked to my counterpart at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but I know they must be thinking of something. The responsibility of engaging the UAE rests with them because they represent the government of Uganda,” he said.

Background

UAE suspended flights from Uganda with effect from December 28, and said the ban will remain in place until further notice, following a surge in the number of passengers from Entebbe airport testing positive on arrival at Dubai International Airport. Following the ban, Uganda airlines suspended all its flights to the country until the ban was lifted.

However, inbound flights from Dubai to Entebbe will continue to carry passengers and cargo. Affected passengers may change their tickets to a later date at no extra cost. Please contact our call centre or visit Uganda Airlines offices for more information. We apologise for the inconvenience caused,” a statement issued by Uganda Airlines reads.