Ambassador Abbey Walusimbi, the Senior Presidential Advisor on Diaspora Affairs, has said government is fully concerned over the increasing cases of human rights violations against Ugandan migrant workers.
Amb. Walusimbi made the call while speaking to over 100 recruitment companies that attended a three-day retreat organized by the Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies (UAERA) under the theme: “Retreat, Review, Recharge”.
“There are several allegations against you owners of companies that you present fake job orders for clearance and this has been evident in the increased number of Ugandans who are stuck at your offices abroad and in warehouses with nowhere to work. We must not allow this to continue and it must stop with immediate effect,” Walusimbi warned.
He called for scrutiny of the recruitment companies and adequate training of migrant workers especially, the house maids before they depart for work abroad.
The Senior Presidential Advisor on Diaspora Affairs said a number of complaints have come up against the labour export companies including mistreatment of Ugandan workers, withholding of their passports, denial of basic human rights like access to healthcare, communication, inadequate access to government services among other.
“My attention has been drawn to the fact that you are gathered to discuss improvement of such issues and for this I commend you for the move which we hope will yield better results. We should all work together towards finding lasting solutions,” Amb. Walusimbi said.
He asked the Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies (UAERA) members to come out and expose the bad players within the sector warning that the more they hide the wrong doers, the more the entire sector loses out.
The Minister of State for Gender, Charles Engola urged all stakeholders to join efforts and work towards improving the welfare and protection of rights of the Ugandan migrant workers abroad.
Engola said that the ministry is committed to work with all stakeholders to find workable solutions for better labour externalization in the country.
“We should all come together and work out a monitoring system that will be used to monitor all migrant workers abroad, this will do much in reducing on the cases of human right violations against Ugandans,” Engola said.
He promised to look into the issues raised by UAERA members which included the recent arrest of some of their members, delay in clearance of job orders, delays in the issuance of visas among others.
The UAERA chairperson, Baker Akantambira highlighted a number of challenges that companies are still facing in the execution of their services to Ugandans which needs urgent attention from government.
Akantambira noted that key among these challenges is the unwarranted arrest of five their members who he said had fulfilled all their responsibilities as enshrined within the regulations.
“We are still waiting for a Joint Technical Committee and we request that by default, UAERA should be represented on the committee of the government of Uganda,” Akantambira suggested.
He revealed that UAERA members have resolved to among others set up an internal monitoring framework through self-discipline, self-regulation and a robust monitoring system to ensure migrant workers’ welfare are taken care of.
