Pain of Middle East jobs

Weakness in enforcement

Frank Tumwebaze, the new Minister for Gender, Labour and Social Development, told The Independent that the most important thing is fighting human trafficking which is disguised as labour exportation. Tumwebaze said he had scheduled a meeting on Feb. 7 with Immigration, intelligence agencies, police, and the Nakalema Unit.

“We are still studying the sector. We must work on a framework where we can distinguish genuine and proper migrants from those who are recruited criminally. It is more of an issue of enforcement,” Tumwebaze said.

The new minister said the regulation must be more stringent for the labour export companies. On the issue of companies involved in labour exportation dabbling in human trafficking, there have been allegations that some of the firms are owned and run by powerful people in governments; including UPDF soldiers and those close to the President Yoweri Museveni.

Tumwebaze told The Independent that it is up to the media to name and shame the so called powerful people involved in any vice. He said he had a meeting with other ministers of labour in the region in Nairobi under the auspices of the International Organisation of Migration (IOM). IOM is an intergovernmental organisation that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants.

He said some of the resolutions of the meeting include sharing of consular services among East Africa Community (EAC) countries in far off nations like Saudi Arabia.

Ugandans working in the Middle East get a sign of what is to come when their passports are confiscated, pay is withheld and the abuse starts; rape, violence and other forms of deplorable treatment.

Trafficking cabal at Entebbe

Sources say there is a human trafficking cabal working at Entebbe Airport that is allegedly supervised by the aviation security bigwigs. At airports like Jommo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), those who are traveling to Ugandans for work are advised by their superiors to break up in huddles so as to avoid being detected. All this makes the work of enforcement more difficult.

Some companies, like Spotlight International Recruitment Agency Limited and Middle East Consultants, have been blacklisted by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development. In September 2019, Entebbe Chief Magistrate’s court charged and remanded two senior managers of Middle East Consultants with four counts of human trafficking. The managers are Benon Kunywana and Godfrey Kyalimpa. They were charged with forgery of documents and signatures from the ministry of Gender.

The accused are said to have forged signatures of Lawrence Egulu, a Commissioner for Employment Services in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, to get 50 people travel out of the country in a human trafficking operation. Prosecution alleged that Kunywana and Kyalimpa violated the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act 2009 while at it. The two were remanded at Kigo Prison at the time.

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