MP Nambooze wants gov’t to ban labour export companies

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Mukono Municipality MP, Betty Nambooze wants the government to ban labour export companies.

Nambooze says that government should instead set up a public funded labour agency at the gender ministry headed by a commissioner to stop profit-oriented private companies who allegedly sell citizens into slavery.”

She says the government department for labour export will ensure that all Ugandans who leave will be accountable, details of their employers known and also ensure there is better pay.

Nambooze statement comes after she posted on Facebook on Saturday that Marphie International Recruitment Agency should be banned for hiring 23 Ugandan girls and selling them to the highest bidders in dollars.

She claims that the bidders handed over the girls to families in Jordan who mistreated them.

Some of the girls Nambooze named is Nanzala Zaitun, whom she says failed to pay a medical bill of shillings 480,000 shillings at Nsambya Hospital and thereby taken to a medical facility in Busoga sub-region due to financial constraints.

Another victim is Doreen Mapenzi Gandhi who she says was trafficked by the agency and is being threatened by the owner of the agency, Ruth Tukahiirwa Karungi.

The girls and 22 others were allegedly taken off the plane in wheelchairs with broken limbs and bruises and scars all over their faces.

Nambooze wants the government to ban Marphie International Recruitment Agency Limited and other agencies because Ugandan girls have over the years complained about torture, poor working conditions and mistreatment.

She also noted that some Ugandans in the Arab world “work in restaurants during day and as prostitutes at night.

However, the Director for the agency, Ruth Tukahiirwa Karungi, has since denied the allegations.

In response, Nambooze says that she has evidence from two victims. In addition, she also has a letter where an officer at the gender ministry, Emmanuel Muhanguzi, cleared 13 girls to be exported through the agency in March this year.

Nambooze has also given the police two days to arrest Karungi, Muhanguzi adding that investigations must be commenced into claims of some of the girls who are willing to testify against Karungi in human trafficking-related cases.

She is also rallying support from government, opposition and public to curb human trafficking and helping Ugandan migrant workers who could be suffering in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Oman.

By end of last September, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development had licensed 102 labour export companies including Marphie International Recruitment Agency Limited.

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