Unlicensed labour export companies thrive in Pallisa

Leaders in Pallisa District, Bukedi Sub-region have raised concern over the unlicensed labour export firms in the area that are illegally recruiting vulnerable girls to work abroad. 
In an interview with Monitor on Tuesday, the Pallisa District senior labour officer, Mr George Onyait, said:  “We have on several occasions intercepted girls being ferried to Kampala by those unlicensed agencies. ” 
Mr Onyait further said their investigations indicate that many of the girls, who experience torture and sexual harassment abroad, were recruited by illegal export firms.

 “This exposes the young girls to risks such as sexual harassment, rape and even death. This should serve as a warning to those intending to be recruited to always consult with the labour office for advice,” he said. 
He added that the districts of Pallisa, Budaka, Soroti, Bukedea, and Amuria are the most affected.
The leaders in Bukedi Sub-region have since resolved to temporarily halt giving recommendations to youth who seek to work in the Middle East. 
Mr Akim Basalirwa, the Pallisa Town Council councillor, said the rate at which the parents are selling property including land to process documents for their children to travel and work in the Middle East is worrying. 

“This continued disposing off of land to process the travel documents and other basic needs has completely left these families poorer. The affected families have no land for subsistence farming,” he said. 
The police community liaison officer, Mr David Kauta, said the police registers between three and four trafficking in persons and child trafficking cases every month.
He attributed this to the prevailing high poverty levels in the region which he said has compelled the girls seek employment in the Middle East.

“We have intensified with the community sensitisation so that our people understand [the dangers they may face and how to overcome them] before they are recruited,”Mr Kauta said.
Mr Jackson Okiring, the programme facilitator of Governance and Accountability of Inter-district Network [GAIN-Uganda], a non-government organisation, said the government should sensitise local leaders to understand the procedures of exporting labour to the Middle East.
“The local council leaders should limit giving recommendations to those seeking to be recruited by the agencies, which are not registered. And should also limit land mortgages and sell in order to secure travel documents,” he said.

Mr Samson Emasit Okurut, the programme manager of GAIN-Uganda, said the government should empower the communities to come up with solutions to their local problems such as unemployment. 
“It would be not prudent for one to spend millions to travel out in order to work in the Middle East and yet back at home she or she could start with very little capital to establish a poultry unit which could earn him or her good money out of this project other than suffering,” he said. 
The district senior probation officer, Mr John Micheal Okwalinga, said they normally receive between three and four cases per week of children who have been abandoned by their young mothers who have gone abroad for work.

“This implies that about 12 cases are registered every month,” he said.
He said his office is constrained because it receives only Shs6 million every financial year to carry out counselling and other related activities in communities.
Mr Aron Kabona, a resident of Industrial Area in Pallisa Town Council, said the youth should be empowered to start small businesses.
“I started baking chapati after my graduation with a capital of Shs30,000 but I now employ 20 boys,” he said.
He added: “I no longer have to look for a job because I am an employer. I get 20 trays of eggs which fetch about Shs 220,000 daily. I actually see no reason for investing Shs3 million to go abroad to be harassed and doing donkey work.” 

Mr Kabona said some of his colleagues who travelled to the Middle East came back malnourished and without enough money to start an income-generating project. 
Ms Annette Kirabira, a psychologist, said Uganda should rethink labour externalisation of migrant workers because it has several challenges, adding that there are about 300 licensed private labour-exporting agencies.

Background
Between 2016 and 2022, at least 2,408 Ugandans went to the Middle East in search of employment, according to the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development. Saudi Arabia employed 126,873 (75 percent) of all migrants that went to the Middle East from Uganda.
The United Arab Emirates employed 19,671, Qatar employed 8,089, Jordan employed 4520, Iraq employed 4,420 and Somalia employed 2,294.