The Arab wants you

The pleasure and pain of a Middle East job

Kampala, Uganda | FLAVIA NASSAKA | Rayan Kaahwa has lost count of the money he has spent chasing a job in Dubai. It started in May when he was lured to abandon his small retail shop to pay $700 to a labour export company that promised him a quick job in the Middle East.

“The first interview was quick, I passed immediately,” he says, “They told me if I paid 700 dollars my visa would be ready in two weeks. I went home sold my land and gave the shop to my girlfriend. I was to travel in two weeks.”

After paying the US$700 (Approx.Shs2.8 million), he received another call from the company, appropriately named Middle East Consultants, asking him to pay another Shs500, 000. This, the consultants said, was to verify his documents so his visa could come through very fast. This was in addition to the Shs300, 000 he had paid earlier to get clearance from Interpol. On top of this he had paid Shs210, 000 for registration and medical fees.

Since then, he says, he cannot recall the number of times he has been to the offices of Middle East Consultants in search of answers. His last visit to the company was Monday and doesn’t know when his nightmare will stop. He says he gets a call nearly every week from the company asking him to go do interviews. He says this appears to be a trick they use to keep desperate job seekers hoping.

“One day they called me at 6pm that the Arab wanted me at 7 in the morning.  I jumped on a night bus and was there before 7. The Arab didn’t come. That afternoon I traveled back but as I was about to reach home, I got another call, another Arab wanted me tomorrow at 9am”.

The young man from the newly created district of Bunyangabu in western Uganda has become impatient. He spends not less than Shs100, 000 whenever he is asked to report to the Middle East offices in Muyenga, Kampala; about 350km away. He has lost interest in the job offer, is frustrated, and wants the company to refund all his money.

Meanwhile, the Middle East Consultants offices on Tankhill Road in the uphill Muyenga suburb of Kampala, is a beehive of activity.

On a rainy Thursday afternoon when The Independent visited, a group of youth was in a tent, next to a small bungalow that must have been a residential villa and not an office in its previous life, inside the gated premises.  The youth appeared to be attending a lecture as some of them kept jotting down notes. They all appeared attentively staring at the man standing at the front and talking to them.

Next to the entrance was a waiting van which another group of young men were boarding.

One by one of the mostly youthful men jumped on after exchanging hugs and handshakes with excited people all over the compound. The young men boarding the van all wore white T- shirts and appeared to have cut the same hair style. They were setting off for jobs in the Middle East. Some said they had been told they would work as drivers, security guards, or waiters. It is not clear if they knew that sometimes, job promised in the Middle East can change mid-air.

The tears flow 

At the reception, a young man gazed at them with teary eyes. He is 26-year old Shamshadin Ibrahim and he has for a year been chasing a futile plan to travel to the Middle East for a job. He said this was his 11^th visit to the Middle East Consultants office since his ordeal begun on July 21, 2017. He says on that day, he paid $700 after the company promised him a ready job as a driver in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Shamshadin, a veterinary medicine diploma holder cannot sustain a conversation now. Every time he starts speaking, he lowers his head, only to rise with red teary eyes again.  His face is obscured by a scraggly beard. He is thin although the photo in a passport he only acquired in April last year shows his chubby former self.

“That time I was full of life. I had no debt yet, I had a lot of plans,” he says handing me receipts of the money he paid for medical tests and registration for the job.

Now the endless trips he makes to the Middle East Consultants offices are not for a job. He simply wants a refund of his $700.

Shamshadin says he did five sets of interviews which he passed. At all times, his hopes were renewed that he would finally travel, start earning the UAE equivalent of Shs1.7million, pay off his $700 debt, pay his daughter’s school fees and be able to send some upkeep money home.

Now, he says, he lives more like a fugitive, his life one of accumulated debts, and damaged reputation.

“I mortgaged my father’s car to get the first money” he says. He says he went to the loan shark who gave him quick money after a caller from the company had asked him to pay in two days or else lose the chance to the many others waiting. He told the money lender that he would clear the debt in three months.

Shamshadin says when the money lender realized he was flying out, he started asking for his money.  “I didn’t want my father’s car to be taken,” Shamshadin says, “I decided to get some money from other friends little by little and paid him back. Then I started getting from other friends to pay these ones.”

Now, he cannot get anybody else to lend him money anymore.

“I live an invisible life. I can’t pick calls anyhow. I can’t just go to some places. I can’t afford being seen there.”

They are not alone. About 30 had signed on a list that day Shamshadin visited. They all want a refund. Stories of many others who have either given up demanding for a refund or are still pushing to be paid are told.

We put this to the Company Director, Gordon Mugyenyi on Sept.01.

First, he denies. Such a thing can never happen at his company, he says boastfully. “What do you mean fleecing? Do you have evidence? What job is that?” he asks. He says his company is the only one that gives genuine deals for those seeking employment abroad and whoever pays travels in less than three months. He says anyone complaining could be a victim of an error. Later, however, his tone shifts. He explains that sometimes they may interview many candidates but the hiring company in the Middle East ends up taking only a few of them.

He says they have especially had challenges with those seeking driving jobs because some of the companies they deal with do not have capacity to absorb many of them.

But, we ask, is he aware that the Employment (Recruitment of Ugandan Migrant Workers Abroad) Regulations, 2005 that regulates this trade requires a company to refund a worker’s money if they cannot find them jobs in 120 days? And is he also aware that labour export companies are supposed to take a client’s money only when a job has been confirmed to be available?

Mugenyi seems to be aware of both regulations, but there seems to be a catch 22 situation; if he follows the guidelines, his likely clients will be whisked away by other companies who endlessly advertise themselves offering sweet deals.

Gaps in legislation

The trade, which had been monopolised by the likes of Middle East Consultants around 2010 when labour export to the Middle East became more lucrative with increased unemployment pressure in the country, is now shared between 101 companies licensed by the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development.

Many others export labour as individuals or through unlicensed companies to mainly Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia.

Lawrence Egulu, the Commissioner Employment services in the Ministry of Gender says with many companies now offering to export labour, the ministry has had to tighten regulations so that desperate workers are not exploited.

They now require that apart from the license and proof of job order, before a company asks a job seeker to pay, it should have powers of attorney from a company abroad authorizing them to recruit on their behalf.

He says any job seeker should demand these items before paying. But, he admits, that is the ideal.

“Even us as the regulator, have had challenges overseeing companies to ensure that they meet all the requirements,” he says.

He, however, says any company that takes a job seeker’s money and fails to provide the job risks having its license suspended or revoked completely. On the issue of numerous fees the companies charge, he says they as the regulator cannot dictate it. He says his ministry has no say on waiting intervals before the jobs or what one gets paid at their final place of work.

Apart from ready jobs, companies like Middle East Consultants tend to promise other perks to job seekers, including free air tickets, accommodation, meals, and days offs, overtime pay, among others.

But on a Whatsapp group of Ugandans living in the UAE, one bitter poster calls upon members to end the silence and alert colleagues who are hoping to travel not to fall for all the promises that a Middle East Consultants marketer he calls Kyarimpa  tells workers before setting off for the jobs.

He says in an audio that his colleague who had just arrived had been promised a monthly pay of Shs1.2 million for a cleaning job only for the employer in Dubai to offer Shs700, 000. He warned that it is because of such lies that some end up committing suicide out of desperation because it is impossible to return home as some companies insist on retaining their passports when they arrive.

He had already been a victim as the company promised him that he would be offered food and accommodation only to find it was all a lie. He says you find people doing the same job in the same company but one earns Shs700, 000 and the other shs400, 000 yet they were promised the same pay when applying.

Egulu says they are aware all this happens. And he blames it on the gaps in legislation. He says for now, the Ministry has licensed 15 pre-departure training companies to equip external job seekers with knowledge of what to expect right from when they contact a company or hear of a job advertisement.

He adds that once a recent agreement on labour cooperation between the Government of the UAE which is the biggest destination and Uganda is signed by authorities of the two governments, it will resolve some of the issues.

Between 2010 and January 2018, Gender Ministry figures shows a total of 70,862 workers have been exported to the Middle East. According to the Personal Transfers Report 2017 published by Bank of Uganda, these migrant workers in the Middle East remitted US$224 million in 2016. That is a 171% increase from US$82 million in 2015. These figures imply that the lucrative labour export, which has been likened to modern day slave trade, is unlikely to end soon despite the pain of many of the job seekers.