Government announces drop in Ugandan girls seeking jobs abroad
Jinja Regional Immigration offices. Ugandan girls have lost labour export market. PHOTO/TAUSI NAKATO
What you need to know:
- According to Mr Mundeyi, the immigration department was earning Shs1 billion daily from processing passports for girls seeking to go abroad but the money has reduced to Sh250m million daily
The Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced a decline in the number of Ugandan girls seeking greener pastures abroad through labour export companies.
The Ministry Spokesperson, Mr Simon Mundeyi, attributed the reduction to Ugandan girls allegedly misusing social media to blackmail people in the countries where they work.
“On social media, Ugandan girls are posting videos depicting the sufferings they were allegedly being subjected to in the countries they had gone to work in, which threatened their marketability abroad by way of scaring their potential employers,” Mr Mundeyi said in an interview on September 24.
Mr Mundeyi added that the government came up with stringent measures to regulate labour companies exporting girls, including the introduction of additional costs during the process to eliminate some companies and only leave credible ones to do business.
He said: “Girls from Burundi and Ethiopia rate is $800 (about Shs2.9m), but due to additional expenses our country imposed on labour companies as a way of regulating them, it increased the Ugandan girls’ rate card to $1200 (about Shs4.4 million), so the client opts for cheaper labour outside Uganda.”
Mr Mundeyi added that besides being “expensive and noisy”, Ugandan girls have also proved to be “lazy" hence the low demand abroad which has left the Ministry of Internal affairs with financial gaps in terms of revenue obtained from labour export.
According to Mr Mundeyi, the immigration department was earning Shs1 billion daily from processing passports for girls seeking to go abroad but the money has reduced to Sh250m million daily – due to the low demand for the girls.
He further revealed that labour export companies have started exiting the business due to high regulatory taxes.
The Busoga Region Explorer Dubai Limited Liaison’s Officer, Mr Mathias Mutatyama, cited “witchcraft” as one of the factors reducing demand for Ugandan girls’ labour abroad.
“Many of the Ugandan girls adopted a culture of wooing for strength at work which scares clients abroad,” Mr Mutatyama said, adding that changes in policies in some Arab countries to allow their people to do certain types of work which they were previously not doing is limiting Ugandan girls.
Mr Mutatyama cited Saudi Arabia, whose leaders, he said, are emphasising the use of local labour to develop the country.
“Because countries like Saudi Arabia are using their own labour, the costs incurred by the girls seeking for employment abroad have increased since labour organisations have to foot all the costs which wasn’t the case previously,” Mr Mutatyama further explained.
According to Mr Mutatyama, at least Shs1.1m has to be incurred by any girl seeking to travel abroad for work before being taken on by a labour company, which previously wasn’t the case.
The Executive Director Suubi Recruitment Company Limited, Ms Rehema Namugerwa, attributed the low uptake of Ugandan girls for greener pasture to bureaucracy in the country.
“For quality labour export, my company ensures that the girls take enough time in training in preparation for work abroad, but in doing so, they encounter less during supply yet their counterparts in other countries do not consider this,” Ms Namugerwa said.
For this reason, our girls are out-competed in the job market since the clients may not afford waiting for a two-month period.
The in-charge Stakeholders Engagement and Legal in External Labour Agencies of Uganda (ELAU), Ms Nadya Nyakwera, attributed the low demand for Ugandan girls to the alleged failure by the government to implement the automatic renewal of the Bilateral Labour Agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where the biggest number of girls is destined.
In 2017, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development signed a Bilateral Labour Agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which expired in December 2022, and Uganda declined to renew it pending re-negotiation following allegations of abuse of migrant workers’ rights.
“We export the biggest number of girls to Saudi Arabia, but when the Ministry of Gender suspended its Bilateral Labour Agreement, they found a better market with low prices and cheap transport in Ethiopia where most of the girls speak Arabic.
“By the time it was renewed, we had already lost the market,” Ms Nyakwera said.
The Executive Director Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies (UAERA), Mr Stuart Oramire, attributed the low demand for Ugandan girls to the government's failure to sign enough bilateral labour agreements.
“We only have one functional bilateral labour agreement (with Saudi Arabia), while those with Jordan and Qatar are not functioning. On the other hand, countries like Kenya have signed many bilateral labour agreements with Germany, United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia, among others,” he said.
Data from the Ministry of Gender suggests that between January 2021 and December 2023, at least 120,459 migrant workers left Uganda in search of employment, majority of whom were women and representative of 77.5 percent or 109,773 compared to 10,686 males.
The Middle East remained the destination of choice with 89.1 percent or 107,448 of the 120,459 workers heading to Saudi Arabia.
