The Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agencies (UAERA) have responded to Mukono Municipality MP, Betty Nambooze’s allegations on Labour externalization.
While addressing the press conference yesterday at Hotel Africana, the chairman of UAERA, Mr Andrew Kameraho said that labelling of externalization of labour as slave trade is totally uninformed.
“The labelling of externalization of labour as slave trade is totally uninformed since over 27,000 licensed workers are currently deployed in Jordan alone and Saudi Arabia has 28,000, and they all continue to carry out their work with no complaints. Where issues arise, those are addressed through the recruitment firms.”
The response further addressed the allegations by MP Nambooze that a once Doreen Magezi was trafficked, put on a stall and sold to the highest bidder at $3000.
“That Doreen Magezi was truly placed to work in Jordan to accompany called AlBasha Company a licensed employing company and a member of R.A.A. in Jordan by Marphie International recruitment Agency,” said Kameraho before adding that;
“As it is the custom of the company and indeed as regulations demand, the company has been in touch with Doreen ever since she got deployed. This kind of monitoring is done for all workers recruited officially through registered companies here in Uganda.
“Mid-last month (June 2019), Ms Doreen Magezi informed our operations desk of
how she was not feeling well. We closely monitored her situation through our agents until she made a decision that she can’t work anymore.
“We arranged for her travel back where we even paid her air ticket to Entebbe.”
On the Issue of Doreen being questioned by police upon arrival, Mr Kameraho revealed that this is a standard procedure to document all the issued Doreen could have encountered while working abroad.
“The involvement of the police was purely to document any concerns that Doreen
could have had, and this is normal procedure for returning workers. It also involves
counselling and medical check-up at Victoria hospital, which is the designate health facility.”
Kameraho also reminded journalists that despite of the few challenges, Labour Externalization has greatly contributed to the economy through remittances.
“To-date we have $1.2 billion remitted back to the country by migrant workers, half
of that about $600 million from the Middle East alone.
“It’s therefore a sector we need to nurture as a country for alternative employment
and national development.”
It is worth noting that; Currently, Uganda has over 140,000 Ugandans, working in the Middle East.
Over US $ 500,000,000 (Five Hundred Million) is remitted annually by these migrant workers. US$ 870,000,000 (Eight Hundred Seventy Million dollars) is remitted to Uganda Annually from other parts of the world.
This accounts for US $ 1,370,000,000 (One Billion, Three hundred Seventy Million dollars) of remittances from all over the world to Uganda a substantial contribution to our Economy.
The remittances have positively impacted on the society and our reporter moved to the grassroots to profile some of the Ugandans who went abroad for employment.